


An Angel's Secret *ON HIATUS*

by issy100



Series: The Angel Series [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angels, Angst, Animal Transformation, Bottom Kuroko Tetsuya, Cute Kuroko Tetsuya, Demons, Dragons, F/M, Human Kuroko Tetsuya, Humans, Kuroko Tetsuya-centric, Kuroko is 7 years old, Kuroko is degraded, M/M, Non-Consensual Violence, Nymphs - Freeform, Overprotective Generation of Miracles, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sirens, Slaves, Small Kuroko, Sorcerers, Spirit Animals, Top Akashi Seijuurou, Top Aomine Daiki, Top Kise Ryouta, Top Midorima Shintarou, Top Murasakibara Atsushi, Vampire Akashi Seijuurou, Vampire Aomine Daiki, Vampire Kise Ryouta, Vampire Midorima Shintarou, Vampire Murasakibara Atsushi, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-10-10 14:45:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17427932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/issy100/pseuds/issy100
Summary: A different world where humans are at the bottom of the power system and are treated lower than livestock.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. This is the fanfic I'm using to replace The Animas. I hope you like it!

Kuroko doesn't know how much time passed or how far he was going. All he knew was that he was being chased by a group, a very large group at that. His feet hurt and the soft skin was ripping and starting to bleed for he was running through the forest barefoot. He had a very old shirt and pants that he had been wearing since he turned 5 that had holes and rips forming. The clothing was thin making him feel very cold through the winter's nights. 

 

He heard shouts in the distance and flashlights being shone in every direction and he picked up his pace. Fortunately, Kuroko was used to running a lot, usually from running away from his problems. He kept running until his legs felt like they were about to give out and his lungs feeling as if they had fire flowing through them. The shouts had grown a lot quieter, which relieved him as he slowed down his pace into a walk. 

 

When the small boy looked up at the sky, he saw small delicate snowflakes floating down onto the ground. It gave him a sense of peace. Once his breath evened out, he walked over to a large tree and leaned against it as he sat down. The voice in his head was demanding that he let himself rest, but he knew that once he fell asleep the sorcerers that were chasing him would catch him. Since the little boy was on the run for three days straight, without food or sleep, the darkness drifted into his mind as he fell asleep. What he didn't notice were the quiet footsteps crunching on leaves that were headed towards his sleeping body.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

In this world, humans were nothing, since their magic level was at zero. Since they were good for nothing, they were forced into slavery. Everything depends on your magic level, which will decide your ranking in society. There were 6 races that were known to be living on the earth. The vampires, nymphs, werewolves, sorcerers, demons, and humans. The top in the rankings were vampires, who had the highest overall magic ability of the 6 races. They were in the royal class. The royal family also consisted of very powerful vampires and they ruled over the 6 races. The nymphs and demons were on equal grounds since their status was the same, which was usually being the right-hand man of the vampires and they were in the noble class. Then came the werewolves who had an average amount of magical abilities, including being able to shift from wolf to human and being able to communicate telepathically with people they are close to. Their race belonged in the middle class. Then there were sorcerers, who were able to conduct low-magic skills and belonged in the peasant class. At the way bottom, were humans, who had absolutely no magical abilities and they had no class except that they were treated worse than dirt.

 

The 7th race, that was unknown to many people, were the angels. Only one angel, since the 4 billion years of Earth's existence, touched down on Earth to create life and make Earth habitable. That angel then left an engravement into hard stone that held small information about their kind. There have been no other recordings of angels since then. Angels were said to have magical abilities that conquered God's and many shrines across the world were built to worship them, hoping that one day, they would come down to greet the Earth once again.

 

Most humans that haven't killed themselves yet went into hiding or were captured and auctioned off as slaves. Most of the human population were now working as slaves and there was no punishment if any race murdered a human. Any humans that were found had a bounty on them of at least 15 pieces of gold, making even humans sell each other out. Kuroko was well aware of this. He had a traumatic experience of witnessing his entire family being taken from him and being sold off in a slave-trafficking. Slave-trafficking and slave auctioning were very different. In slave trafficking, slaves were sold as people that worked in the fields, kitchen, cleaned, cooked, and etc. In slave auctioning, noble class and royal class races bid on the slave that was being auctioned. Usually, slaves that were auctioned will be working as dolls and/or social faces. Dolls is a term used for slaves who use their body to please their master (usually un-consensually) and social faces were slaves that used their appearances to boost the family's reputation.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

When Kuroko's eyes opened he faced a window with sunlight shining through it. He was laying in a bed in a small room that was had everything made from wood. Everything was fully furnished as well. The boy looked down to see that he was wearing a huge shirt as pajamas which came down to his knees and the short sleeves reaching a bit lower than his mid-arm. His arms, legs, and feet were fully bandaged from all the cuts that he received and never treated. Kuroko was confused on what was going on since all he remembered was blacking out in the middle of a forest. 

 

He got off of the bed and gently walked over to the door and stood on his toes to reach the doorknob. He turned it and walked into a hallway that leads to a wide staircase. He heard a voice, actually two voices coming from downstairs. Curiosity sparked inside of him as he quietly walked down the wide staircase to see two very very tall people. One was a man that had a scary face and red hair. His eyes were a fierce red and shaped intimidatingly. What truly intrigued Kuroko were his split eyebrows. The man was toned and, as mentioned before, very tall. The other was a woman with blonde hair and green emerald eyes. She had pink glasses on her face as well. She wasn't as tall as the man, but she was a giant compared to Kuroko.

 

"Umm, excuse me," said Kuroko, in his angelic, soft voice.

 

The two stopped talking and looked around until their eyes met Kuroko's and they didn't look startled or flinch from Kuroko's sudden appearance. He remembered hearing from somewhere that werewolves senses are much more heightened than other races, except for vampires. 

 

Kuroko asked his question which he was dreading to know, "Are you going to turn me in?"

 

Before the two could give their answer, Kuroko kept going. "Please don't. I'll leave immediately if I have to. I don't want to be a slave," said Kuroko as tears started slipping from the corners of his glistening eyes.

 

"Oh, sweetie. We weren't thinking of doing anything of the sort. Don't cry," said the woman as she walked over to the crying boy and kneeled down to his level and used her sleeve to wipe away the tears that were falling down the boy's porcelain skin.

 

"Y-You won't?"

 

"Of course not."

 

"T-Then why did you help me?" asked Kuroko, with his innocent voice.

 

The woman waited a bit before saying, "I have a soft spot when I see people that are struggling. I feel the need to take them in and care for them, no matter what race they are. But it wasn't actually me who brought you. It was this big guy over here that saved you when you were being chased."

 

Kuroko looked towards the man and immediately bowed and said, "Thank you very much for helping me."

 

"Ah, no, you don't need to thank me," said the man. There was an awkward silence after Kuroko stopped bowing.

 

"You must be hungry, right?" asked the woman towards the boy.

 

"I'm not really hun-" A loud growling coming from the boy's stomach made him blush in embarrassment as the woman and man smiled.

 

"I guess that answers my question. We can ask each other questions while we're eating," said the woman as she prepared breakfast and gestured for the man and the boy to sit at the dining table. The chairs were too low so when Kuroko sat down, the top of his head was the only thing that was visible. The man got up and walked over to the couch and picked up a couple of cushions and placed them on the seat that the boy was sitting on. Kuroko sat again and he was more elevated so that his upper torso was above the table.

 

The smell of food made Kuroko's mouth water, remembering that he hadn't eaten for four days now.

 

Food came out shortly and it consisted of, bacon, sausages, eggs, toast, and fruits. Kuroko was hesitant as he picked up his fork and picked up a sausage. 

 

"Don't worry, I didn't poison it," said the woman, smiling. Kuroko took a small bite and his expression immediately changed into a content face as he ate at a more faster pace. The two smiled at the sight of the boy eating so well.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

When everyone finished eating everything on their dish, the woman put away the dishes and came back to the table.

 

"So, may I know your name first? So that we know what to call each other," asked the woman.

 

Kuroko felt a bit uncomfortable to tell them his name, but he told them anyway. "My name is Kuroko Tetsuya," said Kuroko in his angelic voice.

 

"Nice to meet you Kuroko. I'm Kagami Taiga," said Kagami as he extended his hand. Kuroko didn't know what to do, so he just slapped it. Kagami looked at the boy with confused amusement and started laughing. "When someone extends their hand out to you, that means you shake it," said Kagami as he gently took one of Kuroko's small hands and placed it into his own hand and shook it.

 

"I'm Alexandra Garcia, feel free to call me Alex," said Alex as she gently ruffled the boy's hair.

 

"I'm guessing you have some questions don't you?" asked Kagami. Kuroko nodded. "Well let me fill you in on some things. I found you near a tree and I quickly took you with me, since your chasers were getting really close. When I brought you back, Alex cleaned you up and treated your wounds. If you don't know this already, we're werewolves, so I was able to quickly get you out of there before you were caught."

 

"I see. Thank you."

 

"It's fine."

 

"I have a question."

 

"Ask away,"

 

"Are you two a couple?"

 

Alex sprayed the coffee that she was sipping all over Kagami, who looked very annoyed with coffee dripping down his hair and face. "HAHAHA!! That's funny Kuroko! Fortunately, we're only friends. We just live together," explained Alex as Kagami got up and clobbered Alex in the head before heading over to the bathroom to clean up the coffee on him. The corners of Kuroko's mouth lifted slightly at the sight.

 

"Oh, you're smiling!"

 

"What?"

 

"That's the first time I've seen you smile. It was cute. You should do it more often," said Alex. Kuroko blushed. "I have a question for you as well," said Alex.

 

"Go ahead."

 

"How old are you?"

 

"I turn 6 on January 31st."

 

"You're that young!?"

 

"Umm, yes?"

 

"Dang, you're younger than I expected you to be."

 

"How old are you, Alex."

 

"I'm about two centuries old now."

 

"T-Two centuries?"

 

"Yup, anyways, you're probably getting bored with all this talking, right?"

 

"Ummm..."

 

"Let's go and explore the village with me, alright?"

 

"A-Alright."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

In the basement, Alex found clothes that fit the small boy.

 

"Alex, why do you have children clothing, if it's okay for me to ask."

 

There was a long pause and Kuroko regretted asking her his question. "I found my mate a while back and I loved him a lot. I was pregnant with his child and my friends threw a baby shower for me when they found out it was a boy. They got me all kinds of clothes, from baby clothing to clothing that would fit a kid like you. But they both died, my child and my mate by vampires when they attacked our village. Now the vampires come here every week for a checkup," said Alex with sadness in her voice.

 

"I'm sorry, I asked," said Kuroko in a quiet tone, feeling guilty for bringing up such a sad memory.

 

"No no, don't worry about it. That's in the past now. Now, let's see if this fits you," said Alex in her usual cheerful voice.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

The clothes Kuroko were wearing were jeans and a striped shirt with a yellow jacket on top. She also added a small backpack to Kuroko's outfit, just in case. Alex wouldn't stop complimenting how good he looked. She also made sure to look for clothing that would cover up his bandages. When the two headed up from the basement, Kagami just got out of the bathroom, his hair dripping with water.

 

"Where are you two headed?"

 

"I'm just going to show Kuroko around the village," said Alex.

 

"But wouldn't other werewolves see me and report me?"

 

"Our village is against human-slavery, so many humans seek refuge here. That was one of the reasons why vampires attacked our village."

 

"Oh, I see."

 

As the two headed out the front door, Kagami said, "Don't take too long."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

As Alex and Kuroko walked throughout the village, Kuroko couldn't help but feel uncomfortable from all the stares he was attracting.

 

"Alex?"

 

"Yes, Kuroko?"

 

"Why are they all staring at me?"

 

"Probably because they think you're a do-" Alex stopped herself from finishing the sentence.

 

"They probably think I'm a what?"

 

"It's nothing Kuroko."

 

"Please tell me."

 

"You shouldn't know about it."

 

"But I want to know. What if it concerns me in the future?"

 

Alex contemplated on keeping it a secret but sighed as she gave into Kuroko's pleading. "I was going to say that they probably think that you're a doll."

 

"Like a toy doll?"

 

"No, the expression doll is used in slave auctioning."

 

"Oh, I see."

 

Alex's first impressions when seeing Kuroko was the same as everyone else. She first thought that he was a runaway doll as well. If angels existed on Earth, he would be the living depiction of one. His hair was silky smooth, even though it hasn't been cared for that much and it was a powdery blue color. His eyes were an icy, crystallized blue. It was the first time she saw eyes like that before. They were breathtakingly beautiful. His eyes were also doe-shaped and looked pure. He had long lashes that made his face look more feminine. His skin was porcelain white, but not the sickly white. He had a button nose with plump lips that were tinted a light pink. His stature was that of a girl with his thin arms and skinny torso, but a rounded bottom and thin legs. His skin was also softer than anything she touched before. And his voice was what held everything together. His voice was angelic, innocent, and sounded like music to anyone's ears. Alex didn't blame any of the werewolves in the village for thinking like that.

 

"Well, let's keep going then. Ooh, have you tried ice cream before, Kuroko?"

 

"No, I haven't. What is it?"

 

"You'll love it."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

As soon as they set foot inside the ice cream parlor, all eyes went to Kuroko and the boy hid behind Alex's coat, to ignore all the attention. Alex gave off an intimidating stare to the customers and most of them looked away, thankfully.

 

"Oh, Alex, what're you doing here?"

 

"Oh, Himuro. I was taking Kuroko out for a tour around the village, but I think he feels a bit more uncomfortable than welcomed," said Alex as she gestured for Kuroko to greet himself.

 

"Um, hello," said Kuroko as he peeked from behind Alex's coat. The people around Alex, including Himuro, all looked at the boy, shocked. Himuro telepathically transmitted a question into Alex's head. 

 

"Is he a doll?"

 

Alex replied back, "No, he isn't. But I fear that if he gets caught, he'll definitely become one."

 

"Hello, Kuroko. My name is Himuro Tatsuya. Nice to meet you," said Himuro extending his hand. Remembering what Kagami taught him, he extended his hand as well and shook.

 

"I'll give you a one on the house, alright," said Himuro as he got up and walked behind the counter. Alex ordered for Kuroko, knowing that Kuroko probably knew nothing about any of the flavors. Alex bought him a vanilla ice cream since Kuroko seemed to be eyeing the vanilla flavor. When Kuroko licked it, he smiled at the sweetness and taste of the cold desert. He never knew something like this existed, and he was glad he was able to try it. The boy thanked both Himuro and Alex before leaving the parlor, alongside Alex.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

While the two were walking around the village, Kuroko stopped in front of a large building that looked very different from the other stores and houses.

 

"Alex, what does brothel mean?" asked Kuroko as he pointed to the entrance of the building.

 

"Nowhere you want to be," said Alex as she immediately grabbed Kuroko and pulled him far away from the place, afraid that someone would drag him in there. Alex felt the need to protect Kuroko from any kind of danger and felt responsible for everything as if she was his own mother.

 

"Let's just keep going, alright, Kuroko?"

 

"Okay."

 

As the two spent more time, Kuroko started feeling more comfortable around Alex and even laughed at one point. Alex was very happy that she was making such great progress in getting closer with the boy. When the sun started going down, Alex looked over to a flyer that was pinned on the billboard. It read, "Be careful everyone, vampire's weekly sweep is starting today at 6 p.m." Alex started panicking as she checked what time it was on her pocketwatch. It read 5:43 p.m. They weren't going to make it home in time unless she shifted to her other form. 

 

"Kuroko, we're going home."

 

"Oh, okay," said Kuroko somewhat being able to see Alex's stressing over something. 

 

"I'm going to shift so you have to get on top of me, alright?"

 

"Okay." 

 

Alex walked into the nearest alleyway and started stripping. 

 

"W-Why are you taking off your clothes," asked Kuroko who looked away and blushed.

 

"My clothes will rip if I shift while wearing them. Alex handed Kuroko her jacket for him to wear and Kuroko quietly obeyed. She shoved her clothes inside Kuroko's backpack and a moment later she shifted into a magnificent wolf. It wasn't a typical wolf though. It was probably six times the size of a regular wolf. Her fur was a light yellow mixed with white and her eyes glowed a green hue, the same color of her eyes. Alex gestured for Kuroko to get on. As soon as Alex made sure that Kuroko was safely on her, she ran straight back home. With the pace they were going, they would reach their house within 1 minute, which would normally have taken 28 minutes.

 

Once they were at the front door, Kagami hurridly opened to let in Kuroko and Alex in wolf form.

 

"I told you to not take too long," said Kagami as he hurriedly rushed Kuroko upstairs and told him to wait up there until it was safe. Kuroko agreed, not wanting to defy the people that helped him. He saw through the railings, Kagami spraying the entire first floor with a spray called "Coverup." Kuroko guessed it was to cover up Kuroko's scent, but he didn't know why Kagami would need that. The clock in their house read 5:59 p.m. and the second's hand seconds away from becoming a full minute. 

 

Kagami called to Kuroko, "Go hide in a room."

 

With that, Kuroko ran to the room where he woke up in and hid in the closet, feeling that it would be necessary.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Hello, Taiga, Garcia. How are you two doing?" asked two vampires from the doorway. One of the vampires had slicked back black hair and silver eyes. He had a sharp jawline with harsh looking facial features. The other was a woman with red hair and cross earrings. She had black eyes that look like they could pierce your soul. Her pale skin glittered under the setting sun. They both had dark cloaks on, the usual attire that checkup crews wore.

 

"Fine," replied Alex, unhappily. 

 

"Now, now, Garcia. We apologized and sent you money. Isn't that enough?" asked the male vampire at the doorway that started walking into the house.

 

Alex scoffed as she looked a different direction. The female vampire held up her hand and asked, "Are you two hiding something?"

 

Their expression didn't change whatsoever as they said, "Why would you ask that? Of course not."

 

"Oh, it's just because I heard an extra heartbeat. There should only be four in this house at the moment, correct?" asked the female vampire.

 

"I assure you that no one else is in the house," insisted Kagami.

 

"No can do. Don't you remember, you two got in trouble last month for taking in another human, we need to make sure you two don't have a human in your house," said the female vampire as the two shoved through the werewolves and headed upstairs. The two vampires headed into the room that Kuroko was in. Kuroko suddenly remembered a technique his parents taught him, saying that it would come in handy in the future. It was a way to stop your heart for up to 10 seconds.

 

The boy knew that there were vampires outside of the closet, so Kuroko tried remembering everything his parents told him and ceased his heartbeat.

 

"Oh, it stopped," said the female vampire as she stopped searching the room.

 

"Maybe he died?" asked the male vampire towards the other.

 

"If they're dead, then there's no need for us to get involved," said one of the vampires as they headed out of the house. 

 

"We're sorry for the inconvenience," said the male vampire as he exited the house, followed by the woman. When Kuroko thought it was safe to start his heart again. He stopped holding his breath and breathed heavily as he grabbed onto his chest. He then heard the closet door open and was immediately followed with a hug by Alex.

 

"I'm so glad you're safe," said Alex as she held onto Kuroko.

 

"Me too," replied Kuroko softly as he hugged Alex back.

 

Kuroko was safe, for now. But in the next sweep, he might not be so lucky.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *some sexual content & angst*

January came around and Alex and Kagami went out to buy the boy a gift. Over the time they stayed together, the two werewolves found out that he liked small animals and interestingly, whenever the boy went out into the forest and fell asleep, they would find forest animals crowded around him, some sleeping along with him. (Disney princess, much)

 

Kuroko survived three of the vampire's sweeps now, although every time he heard the vampires entering the home, he would always be reminded of the crying and screaming coming from his family when they were taken away. At the moment, he was by himself and had way too much time on his hands. As time went by, the boy slowly opened up to the two and soon they were almost like family. Whenever the boy felt lonely because sometimes the two had to go out to the capital to report on things going on when they went scouting enemy territory. Kuroko found out that the werewolves he was working with were in a high position in the social rankings despite their race.

 

Kuroko felt bored just loitering around in the house, so he left a note saying that he would be going into the forest again. Usually, the two went with the boy, saying that it wasn't safe, but Kuroko felt that it would probably be fine if he went by himself. Kuroko slipped on some clothes that Alex bought him and put on sneakers and grabbed the usual book that he read and he ventured out the back door to the forest that was nearby. As Kuroko walked down the path that was made by people before, he saw animals stopping what they were doing to look up at the boy.

 

There was a large willow surrounded by a body of water that Kuroko found out a while back and then used it to read. He found the place to be nice and peaceful and a perfect place to read. Since Kuroko didn't know how to read or write before, Alex spent her time teaching him, and eventually, Kuroko grew fond of reading the books that were getting old and dusty in the basement. Kuroko walked down the rocks that were leading to the small island with the giant willow tree and sat down, leaning against the truck as he opened the book, careful not to rip the old pages.

 

Kuroko found a white doe on the island that was injured a while back when he found the place. After he found it, he came every day to tend to the deer. It became quite fond of Kuroko and ended up looking forward to all of the boy's visits. Kuroko somehow felt like he could understand how the deer felt. As usual, Kuroko started to fall asleep under the warm sunlight and calming forest noises as the book fell from his grip and he fell asleep.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kuroko was awoken by the tugging of his clothing and woke up to face the deer nudging him in the shoulder.

 

"What's wrong," asked Kuroko.

 

The deer nudged his head towards a direction where he saw figures getting closer to the island he was on. Kuroko remembered that the vampires that came to check up on the village came from this forest. He opened the pocket watch he was given and it read 5:59 p.m. He was too careless. Kuroko immediately scrambled to his feet and tried running away from the vampires, but they noticed the movement coming from Kuroko's direction, and immediately he was surrounded by cloaked figures.

 

The boy's heart almost stopped, realizing what might happen to him. He tried moving, but it felt as if he was frozen in place. His whole body was unable to move, except for his head. Kuroko then heard the whispered conversation among the vampires.

 

"He'd sell really well, wouldn't he?"

 

"Didn't think that there was a human that looked this... un-human. I'd take him for myself if I wouldn't be getting a large sum of gold."

 

"Alright, just bag him," said one of the vampires as two other vampires got a large bag, that looked like a potato sack, and threw it on top of Kuroko. Because of the time spell that one of them used, Kuroko was unable to move from his position. (A time spell is when you either stop time on the entire world or you stop time for a certain area, animal, or person, which will stop everything from moving, basically stopping time)

 

Luckily, Kuroko was able to breathe inside of the sack, but his heart beat ferociously against his chest, fearing for his life. He didn't know anything about slaves, except knowing that life would be hard and most slaves commit suicide. Kagami only told him how there was a difference between slave-trafficking and slave auctioning. And when Kuroko pressed further into the subject, Kagami told him that he wasn't old enough to know yet. Today was his birthday, and his birthday gift from the vampires was entering the world of slavery.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kuroko assumed the vampires teleported and soon after he heard more vampires teleporting to where he was. He then heard voices, although he only made out certain words.

 

"Tell... them."

 

"did... the sweep... off."

 

"Good... the boy."

 

He then felt the opening of the sack being opened and he looked up to see the same man that Kuroko saw during the checkup of Alex's house. He had silver eyes, slicked black hair, and sharp features.

 

"You smell, familiar," said the man. "Anyways, just knock him out and then prepare him for the auction."

 

 _Auction? Did he just say auction? Am I going to be sold?_ Kuroko thought to himself. He then felt a hand touch his face and a cold feeling entering his head and he felt numb all over as he fought to stay conscious. Unable to resist the pull, Kuroko passed out.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

When Kuroko's senses came back, he immediately opened his eyes. He looked around, hoping that everything was all just a dream. Instead, he found his surroundings to be inside a cage. Although, the cage looked weird. It wasn't your typical boxed cage, but more of a bird-shaped cage. He tried touching the metal, but as soon as he did, a shock ran through his body as he backed away. There was a black drape over the cage and when Kuroko touched the metal, the drape parted and he saw the face of another vampire.

 

"Don't touch the bars. You'll get shocked," was all the man said as he disappeared from view and let the drape fall back into place. Kuroko felt scared, no, scared was an understatement. He felt petrified, anxious, cold, and tired. He looked down onto himself, and he barely had any clothes on. He only had a thin blouse that came up to his mid-thighs, but they completely covered his arm. (Kinda like a boyfriend shirt, if you know what those are) His ankles were shackled together, and he could feel his skin starting to bruise.

 

After what seemed like hours, he felt himself getting moved and after a while, it came to a stop. He heard a loud voice from outside of the cage. The booming voice appeared to be speaking into a microphone, from Kuroko's guess.

 

"I hope everyone has enjoyed tonight! Like we always do, we always save the best for last! Remember the little announcement I made in the beginning about saving your money for the last item?! Well, here he is!" announced the voice as the black drape that was covering the cage was lifted. The blinding lights hit his face and he winced as a headache shot through his head. He looked out to the large number of vampires and demons that were seated in the crowd. Kuroko couldn't help but feel scared as thousands and thousands of faces stared at him. He heard many gasps resonating throughout the crowd.

 

He felt terrified. He didn't know what to do. How would he escape? Was it worth it? He didn't want to die yet. Tears slipped down the boy's face as he whimpered and tried to hide from the burning stares he was receiving.

 

The loud voice then announced, "We'll start the bidding at 10,000 pieces of gold. (1 piece of gold is worth about $100 in real life) He saw signs being raised and the announcer read them off. Kuroko couldn't hear anything, he didn't want to hear anything. He didn't like this. He came back to his senses as he heard the announcer's voice again.

 

"And #23 raises it again to 900 thousand pieces of gold!"

 

 _9-900 thousand?!_ Kuroko thought to himself. _That's way too much!_ Kuroko kept hearing the price being raised until they entered the millions. _How can they leisurely spend so much money?!_

 

"And sold to #64 for 1.2 million gold! Please come backstage, for your items will be back there! Thank you all for attending! Have a great night!" announced the vampire as a red velvet curtain closed off the sight of the audience. As soon as the curtains closed, the announcer's once cheery voice turned dark as he told an attendant, "Take him to the back," and left without a word. Kuroko couldn't do anything except stay in a shocked paralysis state as he was moved to where the other slaves were.

 

When they reached the place, Kuroko's cage opened and the boy was able to leave the cage if he wanted to. Kuroko exited the cage, being careful not to touch the bars. When he got out, he saw other slaves sitting around, all with an unhappy expression on their face. They were all wearing the same attire he was wearing and they all had very nice appearances, although most of them were young. Kuroko felt out of place.

 

"Hey there," said a female voice from behind him. Kuroko turned around to face another person that was auctioned. She looked to be in her late teens, yet she looked beautiful. She had long, silky brown hair that was curled. Her eyes were a dark green and she had long lashes. She crouched down to his level so that she was able to see his face.

 

"Is this your first time here?" she asked.

 

Kuroko felt hesitant to talk to her, but he did anyway. "Yes, it is. Isn't it your first time here as well?" asked Kuroko, confused.

 

"No, it's quite common for masters to auction off their slaves once they are bored of them. That's the case for most of the people here," she said as she looked over at all the children sitting around with gloomy expressions plastered on their faces. The girl noticed Kuroko shaking as he gripped the hems of the clothing he was wearing.

 

"I don't want to be here," said Kuroko in a shaky voice.

 

"No one does, sweetie. We're just some of the unlucky few that got auctioned instead of being sold for labor.

 

"What?"

 

"Do you even know the difference between auctions and trafficking?" asked the girl. Kuroko shook his head. She sighed as she said, "Follow me, it'll take a while until the people that bought us will come. They attend a party after the auction, and once the party is over, they come and pick us up," she held out her hand for Kuroko to grab. "I'm Akari? You?"

 

"K-Kuroko," said the boy as he grabbed the girls hand and she took him over to a dusty couch. She dusted the dust off the couch as she sat down. Kuroko followed.

 

"I'll just inform you about the basics since if you go off with your master without knowing anything, you'll have a hard time." Kuroko nodded.

 

"In trafficking, slaves are sold for labor. They work in the fields, so basically farming. They also cook, do laundry, clean, the typical stuff. They are also sold at a low price. I think the highest you could go would be about 100 pieces of gold. How much were you sold for?"

 

Kuroko softly said, "1.2 million..."

 

"1.2 m-million?!" Akari whisper-shouted. Kuroko simply nodded, also not knowing how to react to the price he was sold for.

 

"Dang, that's a lot... Anyways, that's the jobs that slaves that are trafficked do. Auctioned slaves are sold at any price, but they usually bid at the price of your appearances. Auctioned slaves sometimes are used for a noble or royal family's face. The more attractive the slave you have looks, the more money people think you have. Have you heard of the term 'doll' before?" Kuroko nodded.

 

"Well, dolls are used for sex and to relieve themselves from stress. Sometimes, a doll can also be the closest person to the master, surpassing family at times."

 

"I-I have a question."

 

"Go ahead."

 

"What's sex?"

 

Akari just stared at the small boy who was looking up at her in confusion. She thought, _He really knows nothing. He's so innocent... I feel bad knowing that he is going to have to figure it out on his own..._

 

"You'll find out," said Akari, looking away. Kuroko started dozing off when Akari stopped talking. Kuroko fought himself to not fall asleep.

 

"Hey, I'll wake you up when they start coming. Just sleep for now," said Akari as she offered her lap for him to lay down on. Kuroko thanked Akari and layed down on her lap and fell asleep.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"-oko."

 

"-uroko."

 

"Kuroko."

 

Kuroko awoke to see Akari's face looking down at him.

 

"They're here," she said as she got up. Kuroko also got up from where he was laying and followed Akari to where everyone was lined up. Kuroko stood next to Akari, not knowing anyone else. Shortly after, he heard the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer until he saw the figures of vampires and demons walking in. The boy froze up at the sight of them. He watched as each slave followed their master when they found out who it was.

 

Kuroko watched Akari walking away and how she gave him a small wave before following her master. When there were only a few slaves left, a large vampire stood in front of Kuroko. I don't mean large in height, I mean large as in weight.

 

"Look up," said the vampire who wanted to see the boy's face, since his attendant was the one attending the auction. Kuroko slowly looked up at the vampire as the vampire looked shocked.

 

"You did good," said the vampire as he patted his attendant and placed his hand on the back of the boy's neck, creating a mark that had his family's symbol be printed onto Kuroko's pale skin along with a collar. He then motioned for Kuroko to follow him. The boy followed tightly after the attendant and when they reached the entrance to the auctioning building, Kuroko saw an extravagant carriage parked outside. His master didn't like teleporting, saying that it took up to much of his stamina, so he chose to travel by carriage.

 

The attendant opened the carriage door as the vampire got in. Kuroko stood at the entrance of the carriage, not sure if he was supposed to go in or stay outside.

 

"Well, aren't you getting in?" asked the vampire in an annoyed tone. Kuroko quickly scrambled to get into the carriage, nearly tripping over the shackles that were still clutched onto his ankles.

 

The entire ride to their location was deafeningly silent. Kuroko just stared at his feet, not wanting to make eye contact, while the other was staring at the boy, looking him up and down. Kuroko couldn't feel even more uncomfortable at this point. What Akari told him only made him more scared for what would happen since he didn't know half of what she was talking about.

 

After what seemed like hours of driving, they reached where they were going. The door to the carriage opened and the vampire got out, the carriage creaking to support his weight. Kuroko then followed after him.

 

When the boy got out of the carriage he was met with a luxurious estate that passed all his expectations for what noble and royal dwellings looked like. It didn't even look like a house, it looked more like a castle to Kuroko. The boy then noticed seeing slaves working outside in tattered clothing; they also had chains on their ankles as Kuroko did. Some of them were pruning the garden, others were farming in the back, others were gardening, and so on. When they saw the boy arrive, Kuroko felt as if a hint of pity passed through their eyes before they went back to what they were doing.

 

 _Would his job really be that bad? What could I be doing?_ Wondered Kuroko as he followed the vampire into the house. The boy saw the vampire whisper an order into the attendant's ear and he remained in a bowing position as the vampire kept walking. Kuroko didn't know whether to follow them or to stay, so he just chose to stay.

 

"I shall take you to your room. Please, follow me," said the man as he walked down different hallways, making twists and turns that Kuroko lost where he was going except for just following the man in front of him. When the arrived at the designated room, the man opened the door and showed Kuroko a room with a futon on the ground with a blanket. The wallpaper on the wall was starting to tear, and the floor was concrete that was cracked and dirty. There was also a desk, but the boy didn't understand why someone would need a desk here. There was a lightbulb hanging from the center of the room that sometimes flickered on and off.

 

"Most nights, you will not be sleeping here, so rest assured. The others will come to get you when the master calls for you," said the attendant. He then turned and closed the door, locking it after. Kuroko walked over to the bed he was on. He wished he could at least take the chains on his ankles off since they've been rubbing against his skin for a while and it was starting to hurt. The boy knew he didn't do much today, yet his mind and body felt exhausted. Kuroko decided to just sleep until he was called for. He layed down on the bed and curled himself up into a ball before falling asleep.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kuroko awoke to someone shaking him awake. It was a female maid. The boy slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. She gently got him to stand up as she led him out of the room and walked down different hallways from where Kuroko came from. They both stopped when they reached a double door. 

 

She opened the door to a large bathroom. Everything was shining. There were three other maids inside the bathroom and they bowed a greeting to the boy. The maid that brought Kuroko walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She then walked over to Kuroko and started unbuttoning his shirt. Kuroko flinched back a couple steps.

 

"W-What are you doing?" asked the boy as he clutched the unbuttoned area on his shirt.

 

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, but you should at least be clean before meeting the master," said the maid.

 

"Oh, I see. By any chance, do you happen to know why I'm being called for? Is he assigning me work to do?" asked Kuroko, oblivious of what his job was and what he was bought for.

 

"In a way, yes," said one of the maids, unable to look Kuroko in the eyes. The boy decided not to push the matter since he'd be finding out soon enough. He unbuttoned the rest of his shirt and slipped it off, not liking other people taking his clothes off. A maid then took a key from her pocket and unlocked the shackles that were still attached to the boy's ankles. The maid then led Kuroko to a filled bathtub and gestured for him to get in. Kuroko climbed into the tub and melted into the warmth of the water. The maids washed his hair, body, conditioned and moisturized. The boy was told that slaves were not treated well, and Kuroko wondered why people thought that when he was being treated so well, at the moment. He was then dressed in nice clothing that fit him perfectly.

 

When the maids were almost finished, Kuroko asked them a question that they never thought that they'd hear.

 

"What are your names?" asked the boy.

 

"I don't think it is necessary for you to know our names," said one of the maids.

 

"But I think it's necessary. I want to be able to thank you properly, and if I want to do that, I need to know your names."

 

One of the maids sighed as she said, "I'm Hanai."

 

Another maid said, "I'm Kiyoko."

 

"I'm Kanako."

 

"I'm Mei."

 

When Kuroko heard all their names he then said with a smile, "Thank you, Hanai-san, Kiyoko-san, Kanako-san, Mei-san."

 

The maids didn't react in any way, although they were a little happy but a little sad, knowing what was coming up for the small, innocent boy they met. When the maids were finished, they opened the door to find the attendant that brought Kuroko to his room waiting near the door. The attendant said, "Follow me," as he walked off with the boy following after him. The attendant brought Kuroko to a large door that was much more bigger than the other doors of the house that he had seen. The attendant knocked on the door and briefly after, they both heard the word, "enter," and the attendant pushed open the door where he told Kuroko to enter. The attendant quickly bowed and left the room, leaving the boy and his master in the room. It appeared to be the vampire's bedroom.

 

"Strip."

 

Kuroko felt like he didn't hear the man correctly. "Excuse me?"

 

"Are you deaf? I said to strip."

 

"Why? I don't want to," said Kuroko, unaware of how slaves should listen to every command their master gave them. The vampire, half annoyed, half amused, got up from where he was sitting and walked over to where the boy was standing and grabbed his neck and pushed him against a wall. Kuroko struggled for air as his breathing was cut off.

 

"Listen, I don't think you understand how things work with slaves. It doesn't matter if you want to or don't want to. If I want it, you do it. You're nothing but a worthless human slave, so do what you're told to do," said the man as he released his grip on Kuroko's neck. The boy collapsed to the ground coughing and gasping for air. His neck would definitely be bruised. Once his breathing evened out, he heard the vampire say once again, "strip."

 

Not wanting to go through almost suffocating again, Kuroko quietly obeyed. He unbuttoned his button-up collared shirt and let it drop on the ground, fully exposing his torso. He then unbuttoned his pants and pulled them down. When the vampire noticed that the boy wasn't removing his underwear he said, "Fully strip, everything." Kuroko felt humiliated and embarrassed as he removed his underwear along with the rest of his clothes. The boy just stood there, not knowing what to do next. 

 

The vampire then dragged the boy by his arm and threw him onto the bed. He then climbed on top of him.

 

"W-What are you doing?! Please stop!" exclaimed Kuroko, trying to push off the other.

 

"What did I say about talking back!" said the vampire, slapping the boy's face. Kuroko held him throbbing cheek, holding in tears that were threatening to slip out. "Just behave, and you won't get hurt."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

One of the maids that were preparing the boy happened to be walking by the vampire's bedroom. As she got closer, she then heard screams of pain and crying coming from the room. Her heart hurt, but, instead, she quicked her pace, walking past the room as fast as she could so that she could stop hearing the pained voice coming from the room.

 

The maids that helped Kuroko worked in the 'doll' compartment, along with cleaning and they were always assigned cleaning up after them. When they walked into the vampire's bedroom, their master walked outside of the room saying to clean up the mess. It was always the hardest for them to see the first time a doll was slept with. Seeing Kuroko lying on the bed motionless, on the bed made a sharp pain hit their heart. 

 

The boy was lying on the bed, dried tears on his face, bruises all over his body, blood stains on the sheet and on his skin, along with semen stains. One of the maids gently lifted the boy off the bed, taking him to the bathroom they were previously in before while the others cleaned up the bed and replaced the sheets. Kanako turned on warm water so that it would fill the bath. Once it was filled. she began cleaning up the boy with the usual procedure she used. Once she was finished, she drained the water and gently dried up Kuroko with a fluffy towel.

 

"Kanako-san?" said Kuroko in a raspy, hoarse voice.

 

"Yes?"

 

"Is this really all I'm good for?"

 

"What?"

 

"Nevermind..."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

As the days passed by, Kuroko, who was once a lively, happy 6-year-old, turned to a dull, emotionless, quiet boy who only spoke when told to. The maids watched as how the life in his eyes drained as each week passed. It was common for that to happen to dolls, but it was always a painful process to watch. Sometimes they would hear the boy softly crying himself to sleep at night. As each week passed, the bruises and bite marks on the boy increased as well, to the point where they bandaged him in the places that were discolored the most.

 

It was a day where the vampire had things to attend to at the capital, so he left for the day. Kuroko spent his day reading in the library, where he spent most of his time if he wasn't with his master. While the boy was reading, a folded paper slipped out from a page. He picked it up and unfolded the paper, looking to see what it said. It read,

 

"To any doll that doesn't want to live here anymore. I was just a slave like you, who are reading this, and I found a way out of this hell hole. Follow this map I sketched, and you'll be outside in no time. Be careful."

 

Kuroko reread the paper, making sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. He could finally get out. All the doors that led outside were always locked from the outside. The boy decided that he would leave immediately since the sun was already starting to set, and during the night he was always called to his master's room. The boy followed the map down series of hallways until coming to a stop in front of a light mounted to the wall. On the paper, it said to twist the light to the left for something to open up. Kuroko did just that and it revealed a long dark hallway that opened up in the wall. On the paper, it also said to just walk down the hallway, even though it may seem dark.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

After walking for a while down the hallway, he felt the warm rays of the setting sun hit his face. It felt so long since he went outside, due to him being locked inside the house. The boy believed that he was near the back of the house since he saw a forest surrounding the farm fields. He then heard a carriage pulling up from the front of the house. He had to hurry otherwise he could be caught. Luckily there were no other slaves working on the fields, so the boy sprinted towards the forests and ran as far as he could from the place.

 

When he couldn't tell where he came from or where he was going, he took a break. After catching his breath he kept walking until he came up to a rushing stream. The sound of water flowing calmed him down. But his calmness didn't last long as he heard voices approaching him at a fast pace. He heard,

 

"Catch it!"

 

"Don't let it escape!"

 

He first thought that people back at the house found him and was about to surrender himself until he saw an elk running up to him and hiding behind the boy, thinking that the boy's small body could shield its large body. Just then, two vampires approached him. One had golden locks and golden eyes as well. He had a tall and toned figure. He also had pale skin and long lashes. He was very handsome. The vampire next to him had tanned skin and midnight blue hair. His face was a bit sharper and intimidating compared to the welcoming face of the other. He also had a toned and tall figure. His eyes were the same color as his hair. The blonde one said, 

 

"What do we have here?" 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter everyone. My internet was down for about 3 days because of a blizzard...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any suggestions for me, feel free to tell me and I'll add them.

"What do we have here?"

 

Kuroko looked up at the two cloaked vampires, fear swarming through him. The elk somehow noticed the fear radiating off the boy, so he nudged the boy in the arm, thinking that it would help. When Kuroko spent time in the forest near Alex and Kagami's house, he found out how animals somehow shared a connection of some sort to him.

 

"Are you running away from somewhere," asked the blonde. Kuroko knew that they were going to take him back to where he came from, so he set off running, trying to get away from them. But, as soon as the boy started running, the tanned vampire was standing in front of him. 

 

"We were talking to you. You're supposed to answer when someone asks you a question.

 

"Now, now, Aominecchi. Don't be so mean," said the blonde as he walked over. He stopped when he suddenly turned to the direction of Kuroko's master's house. 

 

"People are coming this way," said the blonde.

 

"It's Fatso's guards. I hate him, he's so annoying that it pisses me off," said the tanned vampire.

 

"Is Fatso your master?" asked the blonde.

 

"F-fatso?" asked Kuroko, not believing what the two vampires he just met were calling his master. The two vampires just stared at the boy, shocked by his voice, but got over it quickly.

 

"The heck, so you can talk," said the tanned vampire.

 

The pale-skinned and dark-skinned vampires noticed the bandages that were almost covering the boy's entire body and grimaced.

 

"Is he hurting you?" asked the blonde. The boy hesitated before shaking his head, fearing what his master might do to him if he told the truth. "Okay, I'm going to need you to sleep for a bit," said the blonde before putting his hand on Kuroko's cheek. He remembered this feeling before, the feeling of darkness pulling at his consciousness before passing out. The last thing Kuroko saw was the dazzling face of the blonde before everything turned black.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

When Kuroko awoke, he was laying in a nice bed with a mattress, linens, sheets, blankets, pillows, unlike the futon that he had to sleep with. He looked around the room to see a very luxurious room, even more extravagant looking than his master's bedroom. There was a lot of red that blended well with the gold in the room. It gave a sense of royalty to it. He also had fresh bandages wrapped around his skinny limbs and was wearing new clothing. He sat up, not knowing where he was. He heard the door open and a male human walked in, carrying food and medicine. He wasn't chained like all the slaves in his master's house were. In fact, he was dressed quite nicely, actually had fat and muscle on him and had no injuries on him. 

 

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

 

Kuroko asked, "Why am I here?"

 

"Kise-san and Aomine-san brought you here. Would you like some food?" asked the man. Kuroko was shocked that the man wasn't calling his master's by "master" but instead by their names. He decided to ignore it and shook his head to the offer, unlike his stomach, which growled loudly. "I guess you're eating after all," said the man with a smile as he brought the tray of food to Kuroko's lap. He immediately started shoveling food into his mouth, enjoying the taste of it. When Kuroko was finished wolfing down the food, he asked the human, "Whose house is this?"

 

"This is Akashi-san's estate. Although he lives with four other vampires and one nymph."

 

Kuroko knew most of the vampire customs, through books. He read that living amongst other vampires was very uncommon, since fights would break out, although it was common to have nymphs or demons do business with them, and in some rare cases, live alongside them.

 

"Why did they bring me here?" asked Kuroko, wanting to know the answer since he woke up.

 

"Well, I bet they were trying to help you."

 

"Why would they help me? Humans are livestock that are meant to serve others," muttered Kuroko.

 

"You shouldn't think like that," said the man as the boy looked up at him. "If you do, the masters will get very angered with you. You see, my masters are against humans being sold as slaves, so they buy as many slaves as they can so that other vampires don't buy them and treat them how.. you..." the man stopped talking after seeing the boy's pained expression.

 

"I should probably leave. My master will be looking for me," said the boy as he shivered, remembering the punishment he received before for trying to run away.

 

"Why do you want to go back to him? Don't you hate him?" asked the man.

 

"Of course I don't like him. But if I go back now, I might receive a less painful punishment," said Kuroko as he ignored the pain in his entire body as he got up from the bed. The man tried telling Kuroko to stay but the boy insisted that he had to go. Kuroko reached the doorway and was about to open the door until a familiar blonde entered the room.

 

"Oh, you're up!" said the blonde cheerfully.

 

The boy bowed his head as he said, "I thank you for your hospitality, but I must get going now," said Kuroko as he tried walking past him. He then felt a hand grip onto his wrist, wincing at the pain in his wrist.

 

"Why are you going back to him?" asked the blonde in a dark tone.

 

"Pardon?"

 

"Why are you going back to that abusive bastard?!" the blonde yelled, an angered expression on his face. Kuroko was too shocked to move as the grip on his wrist tightened. The pain brought him back to his senses.

 

"Y-You're hurting me," whispered the boy, trying to pull free.

 

The blonde was able to make out the boy's barely audible words and immediately let go of his wrist. "I'm so sorry," said the blonde before examining Kuroko's wrist, making sure he didn't bruise it more than it already was. "Just don't go, please," said the blonde.

 

"But... he's my master," said Kuroko, stubbornly. The blonde sighed as he gently picked up the boy and called back to the man still in the room, "Thank you for watching over him, Takaocchi," before leaving. Kuroko found it odd that the vampire was thanking a human, but he was even more confused as to why he was being carried. He didn't ask, afraid that the blonde might hurt him if he questioned what he was doing.

 

They arrived at a large double door. The blonde knocked on the door and they both heard a velvety, melodious voice say, "Come in," from the other side of the door. The blonde walked into the room and Kuroko saw a very handsome, yet intimidating vampire sitting at a desk, doing paperwork. The vampire had fiery red hair and glowing cat-like eyes. One eye was blood red while the other was golden. He had pale skin and a toned feature. 

 

"Oh, who is this?" asked the vampire looking up from his work to look at Kuroko.

 

"Akashicchi, help me convince him to stay," said the blonde in a pleading tone.

 

"Would you like me to brainwash him?" Kuroko paled at his words. The two vampires noticed and the vampire at the desk said, "Nevermind."

 

"He's really stubborn, but I don't want to use any spells on him. I want him to stay by his own choice," said the blonde as he placed Kuroko on the ground. The boy shivered from fear as he gripped onto the hem of his shirt. He didn't know what the two wanted from him. What if he opened himself up to someone and got hurt again. The boy wanted to avoid going near the mansion of his master, but he knew he was going to have to go back eventually. The vampires both noticed Kuroko shaking.

 

"Are you scared?" asked the blonde, kneeling to look at the boy's face.

 

"N-No," said Kuroko in a shaky tone.

 

The blonde waited before saying, "I know that you don't want to be here, but I'm not letting you go back to your "master." Why do you even want to go back to him?"

 

The boy questioned if he should really tell them since they were vampires as well. Maybe they were just being nice so that he would trust them and end up in the same situation he was put with his master. When Kuroko didn't answer, Kise's eyes glowed yellow for a split second before he made a pained expression on his face and put his hands towards his mouth.

 

"That's awful!" said the blonde.

 

"Pardon?" asked the boy, confused.

 

"You've been through so much, I'm sorry."

 

Kuroko was beyond confused.  _What on earth is this guy talking about?_ thought Kuroko. "With all due respect, what are you talking about?"

 

"Since you weren't telling me, I quickly looked through your memories to see why you would go back to him. I'm sorry that I looked without your permission," said the blonde in a sincere and regretful tone.

 

"You don't have to apologize to something like me, sir," said Kuroko quietly. The two vampires in the room got angered at what the boy was saying. They weren't mad at the boy, but rather mad at his master for manipulating him to think in that kind of mindset.

 

"What can we do for you to stay?" asked the blonde.

 

Kuroko didn't know how to react. Why did these people want him to stay so badly? "I-I don't know," said the boy, looking down.

 

The blonde looked like he was thinking, and then his face lit up. "I know! Why don't we just buy you from Fatso?!" said the blonde while looking over to the vampire at the desk, who nodded. "Will you stay with us if we buy you?" asked the blonde.

 

The boy didn't know what to do, so he just nodded. The blonde smiled and said, "My name's Kise Ryouta. Feel free to call me anything you want, except for master. And that guy over there's name is Akashi Seijuro. Don't call him master either, he doesn't like it."

 

The boy said, "It would be improper of me to address you as a name other than "master," while bowing his head.

 

"It's really fine, you don't need to, I'd honestly prefer you didn't," said Kise.

 

The boy looked confused before saying, "Then what should I call you?"

 

"Anything you want."

 

"Then I shall address you as master," said the boy, still looking down. The two vampires in the room sighed as they telepathically told each other, "This one is going to be hard to fix."

 

"So what's your name?" asked Kise.

 

"Kuroko Tetsuya."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

The next day, Akashi, Kise, and the tanned vampire that found him with Kise went to Kuroko's master's house. They took the boy with them so that Kuroko's master would remove the seal that he had placed on Kuroko's neck when he first bought him. The boy was afraid to meet his master again, afraid of what he might do to him. When the mansion came into view, Kuroko shook with fear as all the memories came flooding back to him. Kise noticed the boy shaking and he put his arm around Kuroko to reassure him that he would be fine.

 

"Oh yeah, you don't know this guy's name yet, right?" said Kise as he pointed to the tanned vampire. "Introduce yourself, Aominecchi."

 

"Yeah, I'm Aomine Daiki. Nice to meetcha, again," said the tanned vampire as he ruffled the boy's hair. Kuroko flinched at the touch, remembering how his master used to mishandle him. Aomine frowned when he saw how the boy reacted to physical contact.

 

When the carriage stopped, they were at the front door of the mansion. Akashi was the first to get out, then Aomine, then Kise, and then hesitantly, Kuroko got out. The guards noticed the boy and they stared at him in disbelief that showed the expression of either, "Why'd he come back?" or "The master's going to be pissed." But they seemed more shocked to see the three vampires at their estate. Kuroko guessed that the three vampires in front of him stood high on the social ladder.

 

A guard opened the door for the four as they walked in. One of the servants told the three to wait for them to get the master. Kuroko grimaced at the sound of chains clinking together as he looked at the chains shackled on her ankles. The boy wasn't the only one that felt unhappy looking at the chains. The three in front of him also showed dissatisfied looks on their faces.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

A few minutes later, he saw his master running down the hallway to greet the three vampires. 

 

"H-How may I help you, your highnesses?" asked the boy's master as he bowed to the three while panting, due to running all the way from his bedroom.

 

 _Highness? Are they in the royal family?_ wondered Kuroko as he looked up at the backs of the three vampires. When Kuroko's master regained his breath he saw the boy's face peeking behind from behind Akashi. 

 

"You slut! There you are!" shouted the vampire as he stared at Kuroko. The boy frightened, started shaking as he clung onto Akashi. "I'm sorry if he bothered you. He ran away and I've been looking for him. I'll make sure he's punished properly. Get over here," growled the vampire as conjured a chain which connected to the seal on the back of the boy's neck and pulled on it, causing Kuroko to forcefully be pulled to the direction of his master. The boy whimpered as he tried to free himself.

 

"Actually, we're going to buy Tetsuya from you," said Akashi as he pulled the boy back to him.

 

"Excuse me? You're going to buy him?" asked the vampire.

 

"Did I stutter? Listen properly. We're buying Tetsuya from you and you are in no position to defy for this is an order, not a request," said Akashi. The vampire in front of them looked very angered as his face turned red, but eventually, he said, "fine," and motioned for Kuroko to come to him. The boy was reluctant to move towards his master, but Aomine said it would be fine and that they would kill him if he did anything to hurt Kuroko.

 

The boy walked towards the enraged vampire and he placed his hand on Kuroko's nape and removed the seal. Akashi then told them to wait in the carriage while he paid the money.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"I'm sorry if I was acting inappropriately and out of order. Please forgive me," said Kuroko towards Kise and Aomine who stared at the boy in confusion.

 

"What did you do?" asked Aomine.

 

"I clung onto your shirts without permission," explained the boy, while bowing his head.

 

"You don't have to be sorry for that," said Kise in surprise.

 

"Does that mean that I am forgiven?" asked Kuroko, looking up.

 

"Of course! Since there's nothing to forgive," said Kise.

 

"Thank you, Master," said Kuroko. Kise sighed as he said, "You don't have to call me Master, remember?"

 

"That would be offensive towards you so I shall continue calling you Master." Kise sighed again as he looked out the carriage window to see Akashi walking up to it. 

 

Once Akashi was inside the carriage and seated, the carriage took off back to Akashi's manor.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

By the time they returned, it was night time, the time when vampires were the most active. Werewolves, vampires, and demons were the races that were active during the night while nymphs, sorcerers, and humans were active during the day. They were classified into two categories, Lunar and Solar. If you wanted to, people from the solar races can go lunar while lunar races could also switch to solar. Vampires from the royal family were different. They could last two weeks without sleep and were both lunar and solar creatures.

 

When the carriage reached the mansion, they all got out and headed in, through the front door. There were several arches made of marble in the entryway which led to the great room. Inside the room, there were five people, four he didn't know. One was the man named Takao that he saw when he woke up, the other four he didn't know. In the four, there was one female, while the rest were male. 

 

"Oh, Ki-chan, Akashi-kun, Dai-chan, welcome back!" said the female as she sprang up from her seat and walked over to them. She then noticed Kuroko behind the three. "Oh, who's the cutie back here?" she asked as she bent down to the boy's level to see his face. "You're sooo pretty!" said the girl as she picked up Kuroko, surprising him. "You're like a porcelain doll! Oh my god, you're adorable!" she exclaimed as she excitedly squeezed Kuroko into a hug. The boy ignored the pain that he was receiving as she unintentionally pushed against the bruises on his body. Since the girl was a nymph, she immediately could tell that he was in pain, since nymphs were excelled in healing. Only nymphs could heal others quickly while the other races except for humans and sorcerers were able to regenerate themselves only.

 

"Are you alright?" asked the girl as she put him down.

 

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me," said Kuroko as the girl frowned. 

 

"Well you were squeezing him half to death, Satsuki," said Aomine.

 

"Come," said the girl as she gently took the boy's hand and led him over to a couch, where two other vampires that he didn't know were sitting. One had emerald green hair with the same color eyes. He had glasses on and had bandages covering his hands. He was also holding a teddy bear, which confused Kuroko. Takao, who was sitting next to the vampire, had black hair styled in an undercut and had black eyes with sharp features. The other vampire was huge. He had purple hair with amethyst eyes. He had a lazy look on his face while he was eating a bag of chips. The girl had long pink hair and a darker shade of pink for her eyes. They all had flawless skin (I wish I had flawless skin...).

 

The nymph sat down on one of the couches and told Kuroko to sit next to her. The boy sat down and the nymph then asked, "Can you take these off, please?" as she motioned towards the bandages covering his body. The boy was shocked and puzzled at first, but then he stayed still as he understood what she was trying to see.

 

"I-Is that an order?" asked Kuroko.

 

"No, it's not. But I just want to help so it would be more helpful if you took them off," said the girl.

 

Kuroko didn't speak for a while before he asked quietly, "I know this is being very selfish, but may we not do this here?" The nymph nodded and then took Kuroko's hand and led him to another room. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

They were sitting on a couch in another room and Kuroko quickly unraveled the bandages that were covering his entire body. The girl took in a sharp breath as she watched, not liking how injured Kuroko was. When the bluenette (ok, for those who don't like me calling Kuroko this, sorry, but it's more convenient this way) finished removing all the bandages, the girl just stared at his exposed body that was littered with bruises and cuts. The boy shifted around, feeling awkward at the staring.

 

"Ah, sorry. Are you feeling uncomfortable?" asked the girl as she came back to reality. The boy nodded slightly. "I'll make it quick. Is it okay if I touch you?" Kuroko nodded once again. The nymph then placed her hand on the bluenette's chest ad a warm glow resonated from her palm as it spread throughout Kuroko's skin. As it spread on the boy's skin, it cleared away any scars, bruises, and cuts. All the pain that Kuroko was feeling also was released. The bluenette looked down at his arms and legs to see all the imperfections gone from sight and he gaped at the sight. He knew that nymphs were specialized in healing, but he didn't know that they were that good.

 

"Thank you," said Kuroko quietly.

 

"It's no problem! Let's go back then! Oh yeah, you don't know my name yet. My name's Momoi Satsuki. What's your name?" said the nymph as she helped Kuroko wear his shirt.

 

"It is Kuroko Tetsuya, Master," said the boy as he finished buttoning his shirt.

 

"You don't have to call me that," said the pinkette as they walked towards the door of the room.

 

"It would be improper of me to call you anything but Master." Momoi frowned but didn't say anything.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Damn, Satsuki. You're getting good at this," said Aomine as he inspected Kuroko. "You know you look a lot cuter now that you aren't covered with bandages, Tetsu," he continued. 

 

"You're so cute, Kurokocchi! Oh wait, can I call you Kurokocchi?"

 

"You are free to call me whatever you want," said the boy.

 

"Oh, right! You haven't met Midorimacchi or Murasakibaracchi yet have you?" Kuroko looked over to the two vampires that he didn't know yet sitting on the couch.

 

"Hello, Kuroko. I'm Midorima Shintarou," said the green-haired vampire as he looked up from his book.

 

"Hi, Kuro-chin. *munch* I'm Murasakibara *munch* Atsushi," said the other while chewing on a different snack than the bag of chips earlier.

 

"Hello, Masters," said Kuroko as he bowed briefly. He saw the same dissatisfied look that the other vampires gave him when he called them 'Master.'

 

"Tetsuya, you don't have to call us that," said Akashi as he sighed.

 

"That would be rude of me to call you anything other than Master."

 

"Then, I order you not to call us that anymore," said Akashi.

 

"Pardon?"

 

"I order you not to call us that," repeated Akashi. Kuroko just stood there, not knowing what to do.

 

"Then... what shall I call you?" asked the boy.

 

"You can just call us by our names," said Akashi.

 

"Then Akashi-san, I shall call you by your names," said the bluenette.

 

"No need to be so formal," Akashi said.

 

"Then, Akashi-kun? Does that work?"

 

"It works fine."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing Nigou/Tetsuya #2 (Although he's a lot different)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter everyone! ToT! Things got really busy for me so I was unable to write this chapter and post it sooner...

Kuroko grew close to many of the other servants that "worked" at the Akashi Manor. Although they didn't get close enough for Kuroko to feel comfortable sharing personal issues or stories about himself. The boy was also trying to adjust on calling his masters by their names, and he still feared them, as he does with any race other than humans. Kuroko also had to get used to the fact that servants didn't do much. They only helped out when they felt like it since everything else was taken care of with spells since Akashi was excelled in that.

 

The boy also learned through the libraries at the house that the vampires he was living with were actually part of the royal family, as he speculated. The five sons of the royal family. From the 1st wife was Akashi, who was the eldest of the five, then the second wife who had Midorima. The third wife had Murasakibara and the fourth had Aomine. The last wife had Kise so technically the five were related by their father's blood. (Their actual ages aren't in this order. I just put it in order from the most mature to the least mature. No hate on Kise, he's just childish) He also found out that the royal family was against slave cruelty and tried passing a law that forbids it, but obviously, that didn't work out too well. He read in another book that the royal family drinks from blood bags and not directly from a person since death percentage from drinking straight from someone was higher than 80%. 

 

"Kuroko-kun! You're here again?!" exclaimed Takao as he walked into the library to find Kuroko sitting in a chair, reading, like always.

 

"Ah, Takao-san. What brings you here?" asked Kuroko as he closed his book and set it on a table.

 

"You forgot to come to breakfast, again," stated Takao as he stared down at the boy.

 

"I wasn't hungry..."

 

"That's always your excuse."

 

"But I wasn't."

 

"You're so thin. You need to eat food otherwise I'm telling Akashi-san to force feed you. I saved you a portion so come. Now," said Takao firmly. Takao was the first person that Kuroko met, so he felt the closest to him. Out of all the servants, Kuroko was the youngest since most of the servants that were gathered at Akashi's manor were normal slaves and not dolls.

 

Kuroko, grudgingly, got up from his seat and followed Takao out of the library and into the kitchen. On a counter, he saw some food on a plate. On the other side of the kitchen, the chefs were talking with each other. The chefs chose to voluntarily work for the royal family, so they insisted on helping out by cooking food. 

 

"Oh, Kuroko, you're actually going to eat today?" asked one of the chefs when he spotted Takao and the bluenette. Kuroko formed a reputation of almost never eating, and when he ate, he ate a little.

 

After Kuroko slowly ate everything on the plate, he slipped out of the kitchen, unnoticed. Kuroko tried not running into any of the vampires as much as possible since he moved in because he always felt uncomfortable around them. 

 

Kuroko then returned to the library to continue reading his book. He sat down in the chair he was sitting in before and read until noon passed. Around then, the boy started feeling sleepy and eventually drifted off to sleep.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

When Kuroko awoke, he slowly opened his eyes to be facing one of the vampires, Kise. Surprising the boy, Kuroko immediately fell backward as the chair toppled over, but before the bluenette fell to the ground, Kise caught the boy by his waist.

 

"Don't do something so dangerous, Kurokocchi," said Kise as he let go of the bluenette.

 

"What brings you here, Mas-, I mean Kise-kun."

 

"I was going to talk you to ask how things are going and... stuff..." said Kise as he looked away.

 

"Thank you for your concern, but I am doing well, thank you," replied Kuroko.

 

"Why do you do that?" asked Kise.

 

"Pardon?"

 

"Why do you talk so formally all the time even though we tell you not to?" 

 

"Umm, this is the normal way I talk though..."

 

"Oh I see, well I'll be going now," said Kise as he walked away and left the library. When Kise was out of sight, Kuroko thought to himself,  _What was that all about?_

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Akashicchi, why do you want me to keep following Kurokocchi? Not that I'm complaining or anything."

 

Akashi sighed. "I told you. There's something wrong, no, something different about him," said Akashi as he continued doing paperwork.

 

"You didn't even tell us what's different about him," said Aomine who was flipping through a comic.

 

"I can't tell exactly what it is, but something is unusual about him," said Akashi, getting more frustrated by the minute.

 

"He acts completely normal though," muttered Kise under his breath. "Anyways, I'm going to bug Kurokocchi a little more," said Kise happily as he left the room.

 

"Daiki, follow him so that he doesn't do anything stupid," says Akashi.

 

"Yeah, sure," said Aomine with a sigh as he got up from where he was seated and left the room, following Kise.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Since Kuroko had every day, all day to himself, he decided to explore the large estate. Wherever he looked, everything was elegant, wealthy looking, and new. The main colors of Akashi's estate were gold and red, and apparently, this wasn't the main mansion he owned. He stopped when he felt a sensation. He followed where his mind was telling him to go, with Kise following him and Aomine following Kise. Kuroko stopped walking when he was met with large glass doors that led to a garden outside. Kuroko always loved nature and felt at peace when he was near it. 

 

He opened the large glass doors and slipped outside. The garden didn't even look like a garden, it was beautiful, but it didn't look like your typical garden. It looked more like a forest setting but like a mythical forest. (That doesn't even make sense, lol...) Kuroko looked over to a map that had the garden layout printed on it. There were four sections for each season. One section was Winter, the second was Spring, the third was Summer, and the fourth was Fall. Currently, Kuroko was in Spring. To the left of Spring was Winter, to the left of Winter was Fall, to the left of Fall was Summer, and to the left of Summer was Spring. The area was set up in a circle-like layout. Kuroko gazed up at petals falling from trees and showered the ground with different pastel colors.

 

He walked over to the lagoon that was tinted a light blue color and had Sakura petals covering the water. There was an averagely sized waterfall that gently flowed into the lagoon. It was really pretty, in Kuroko's mind. He stared at the lake and found it very deep, not being able to see the bottom, but he did see sea lights embedded into the growing corals on the sides of the walls of the lagoon passageway. He then saw a tail. Sirens.

 

Sirens didn't want anything to do with the whole race system and wanted to be excluded from the rest of the world. They spend all their lives away from everyone else and don't talk to anyone, becoming forgotten by the modern generation, except for those that read about them in books. The other races agreed to cut Sirens out of the race system since their personalities were always difficult to work with. Any pockets of water on the earth was a way for people to see them, but they preferred not to. Akashi's mansion was built near the odd ecosystem of having four seasons in one area with a lagoon in each of the seasons. Unfortunately, a large body of water was connected to each of the lagoons and was in the middle of the four season sections and that was the main gateway to the Siren Kingdom. Akashi found the ecosystem interesting so he made an agreement with Sirens to have his property built there and they agreed as long as the main gateway was sealed off. For precautions, the Sirens placed a border with spells over the surface of each of the waters in each season so that someone didn't accidentally enter their territory. Over time, the garden became forgotten by almost everyone. The garden didn't need tending since it's environment always took care of itself.

 

Kuroko looked into the water and saw a half-humanoid figure swim up from the water. Eventually, the figure broke the surface of the water and stared up at him. It was a boy that seemed the same age as him. His tail glimmered a light green and he had brown eyes with brown hair. Kuroko read about Sirens in the books at Alex and Kagami's place. 

 

"Umm, hello," said Kuroko towards the siren that was staring at him with curiosity. All Kuroko heard from the Siren was gurgling noises. Kuroko was confused and said, "I don't understand, I'm sorry..."

 

The siren then wrapped something around Kuroko's wrist and pulled him into the water. Kise gasped as he ran towards where Kuroko originally was, Aomine following Kise, worried about Kuroko's safety. Kise looked into the blue lagoon to find the boy, not in sight. He was very tempted to just dive in and look for the boy, but since he was unable to, he just hoped that Kuroko would stay safe.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kuroko tried breaking free from the Siren's grip, but to no avail, he kept getting dragged deeper into the lagoon. It was a beautiful sight inside the water. It was very clear water, so he could see properly. The problem was breathing. When Kuroko gestured to the Siren that he needed to breathe, the Siren then pointed to the small bracelet that was clamped onto his wrist loosely and had a water gem on a small string. 

 

"You can breathe," said the Siren. Kuroko was surprised since he thought that the Siren didn't speak his language. The boy, hesitantly, took a breath of air and to his surprise, he was able to breathe.

 

"How?" asked Kuroko. 

 

"The bracelet. It allows you to breathe underwater, pass the border, and understand our language," stated the Siren.

 

"The border?"

 

"Yes, there is a border over the surface of the water, although it is transparent and unnoticeable, except for when you try passing through it."

 

"Why would you let me pass?"

 

The Siren stayed silent, looking like he was thinking hard about it. "No clue (:I). I just find you interesting," said the Siren.

 

"I see," said Kuroko. The Siren then took ahold of Kuroko's wrist and continued pulling him along. 

 

"Oh, yeah. What's your name?" asked the Siren as they swam towards a destination.

 

"Kuroko Tetsuya. Yours?"

 

"Ogiwara Shigehiro."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Ogiwara-kun?"

 

"Hmm?"

 

"Where are we going?" 

 

"A place that I go when I want to be by myself." The two swam until they reached a cave opening in a rock wall, near the borders of the Siren Kingdom. When the two swam into the cave, the first thing Kuroko noticed was the glowing crystals that were embedded into the rock, some protruding outwards as well. In the end, and what seemed like a dead end, Ogiwara swam upwards until he broke the surface again. There was a large cavern with dozens of glowing crystals dangling from the ceilings and hanging from the walls. It was beautiful. Luckily, there was also some floor so that Kuroko could get out of the water. The strange part was the four swirly, airy, colorful looking portal things. One was a light pink with different shades of pink swirling inside of it and was emitting the smell of cherry blossoms. It had flowers hanging above the top of the portal. One was dark green with different shades of green swirling inside of it as well. It emitted the smell of pine trees. It had willow leaves draping downwards from the top of it. The third one was white with many different shades of blue swirling in and out of the portal. It didn't give off a scent, but it was the prettiest looking out of all of them. It had icicles hanging from the top of the portal entrance. The fourth one was different shades of orange, red and yellow swirling into each other. It gave off the scent of freshly fallen rain and it also had leaves hanging above the entrance, although the colors were different.

 

The boy climbed out of the water and sat on the edge of the pool, where his feet waded in the water. When Kuroko looked at the water from above, he could see the blue tint of the water contrasting against the blue, purple, and pink glows that came from the crystal lights underwater.

 

"It's really pretty here," said Kuroko as he looked around.

 

"Yeah, I found this place a while back when I was looking around the area. Oh yeah, Kuroko, what were you doing in Spring?"

 

"Spring?"

 

"That's what the section you were in was called. The sections were all named from different seasons."

 

"I don't know why, but it felt like I knew the exact way to the garden. It felt like something was guiding me there, but I don't know what..."

 

"That's strange."

 

"Why?"

 

"This garden is super hard to find. Not many people can find it accurately as you did."

 

"Hmmm, but it felt as if something was navigating me through. I still remember the path I took."

 

"That's weird. But cool! said Ogiwara while in awe. The two talked until Kuroko's clothes were dry. The boy felt very comfortable and at ease when he was around the siren. He felt that Ogiwara understood a lot of what Kuroko was dealing with. At some points, the two laughed together.

 

"I should probably get back now," said Kuroko as he got up.

 

"Yeah. Wanna meet up again tomorrow here?" asked Ogiwara with a smile.

 

"Yeah. I'll be here by 12!" said Kuroko happily. It felt so long since Kuroko smiled this much with someone. "Umm, do I get back up through those?" asked Kuroko as he pointed to the shimmering portals.

 

"Yeah, there are signs beside each one, telling you which portal leads to which section. Oh, wait! You should create a link to here before you leave."

 

"A link?"

 

"Yeah, that bracelet can create a link to anywhere in the Siren territory. Don't worry, it uses my magic abilities so it'll even work for you."

 

"Oh, ok. How do I do it?" asked Kuroko. Ogiwara gestured for Kuroko to come to the edge of the water. He then touched the bracelet's aquamarine gem with one of his fingers, causing the gem to glow a bright light blue color. He then traced his finger in a line in the air until his finger touched the ground of the cavern, causing there to be a bright, light blue line in the air connecting the gem to the floor. When the siren lifted his finger from the ground, the entire room lit up in a light blue color before returning to its original state. His bracelet was back to normal as well.

 

"Okay, done," said Ogiwara.

 

"H-How did you do that!" exclaimed Kuroko, shocked and amazed.

 

"It's a link spell. It's quite simple." Kuroko attentively listened to Ogiwara explaining what you do for a link spell, although he knew that he couldn't do a link spell since he had no magic. "And remember, press gently against the stone and it should come up with a screen of places you linked within the Siren territory. The only place you linked with yet is here, which is called the 'Crystal Cavern,' alright?"

 

"Okay, got it. I gotta go. Bye Ogiwara-kun!" said Kuroko as he ran through the pink portal which was labeled "Spring."

 

"Bye, Kuroko!"

 

When Kuroko ran through the pink portal, he immediately was transported to the area that he got pulled into the first place by Ogiwara. He was in front of the lagoon in 'Spring.' Kise and Aomine barely had time to cast an invisibility spell. Kuroko looked up at the sky and saw that not much time had passed since he left. Only a few hours. Kuroko continued walking around the Spring sectioned before he came near the border of Spring. On the other side, he saw Winter and he was already feeling cold from the Winter breeze. He then noticed a small animal shivering near a tree that was in the Winter section. The tree was near the border between the two, but he would have to walk a bit in before he reached it.

 

Kuroko quickly ran into the Winter section, his feet running through piled snow and his whole body being pushed by the icy wind. Kuroko quickly picked up the animal and ran back to the Spring section. It was a small fox, but with nine tails. It had white fur and a large fluffy tail and sparkling blue eyes. The tip of each of the fox's tail and ears were tinted black. It had peculiar colors for an animal, but Kuroko ignored it and cuddled it, remembering how much he loved animals. The fox cuddled into Kuroko's embrace and fell asleep.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Where on earth were you, Kurokocchi!?" asked Kise in a worried tone as he greeted Kuroko, who was entering the main living room of Akashi's estate. Kise then noticed the animal in Kuroko's arms and gasped.

 

"K-Kurokocchi! How did you catch that?!" questioned Kise as he stared at Kuroko and the fox. Kise's voice awoke the fox and the animal looked up at the blonde. 

 

"I have a name," said the fox, annoyed. Kuroko, shocked, stared at the fox who. Just. TALKED.

 

"Umm, what's your name?" asked Kuroko, after recovering from his surprise.

 

"It's Nigou!" announced the fox proudly.

 

"Nigou?" asked Kise.

 

"Yes, is there a problem?" asked Nigou.

 

"No, no problem at all. Still, I'm surprised that you're carrying the Guardian of the Four Seasons in your arms right now. You never cease to amaze me, "said Kise as he ruffled Kuroko's hair.

 

"Hey, back off, kid," said Nigou, shooing away Kise's hand.

 

"Guardian of the Four Seasons? What is that Kise-kun?" asked Kuroko.

 

"The Guardian of the Four Seasons is a divine creature. He looks over the seasons worldwide and controls the weather and its features," said Kise.

 

"I could also do this," said Nigou as he jumped out of Kuroko's arms and shifted into a boy that looked the same age as Kuroko but instead, with white hair with streaks of black and blue eyes. He was a bit taller than Kuroko, but he looked to be the same age.

 

"I'm confused," said Akashi. Everyone looked at Akashi's direction, including Nigou and Kuroko. "Only people with a certain magic level can see divine creatures. Tetsuya, how are you able to see Nigou?"

 

Kuroko stared at Akashi, dumbfounded. Everyone turned their heads into Kuroko's direction. 

 

"Oh, you didn't know?" asked Nigou. All eyes went back to Nigou. He pointed to Kuroko and said, "This guy isn't human."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, but here's the fifth chapter! Enjoy!

"Eh? Tetsu isn't human?"

 

"What are you talking about, Nigou?" asked Kuroko.

 

"You haven't even realized it yourself? You see, you are a human, but not a full human. I can't tell what other race you are but I'm assuming you'd be half sorcerer because you don't have a lot of magical power within you." Kuroko looked as shocked as everyone else in the room. One of his parents would've had to be a sorcerer then. Was his family... fake?

 

"Is that why you thought Kurokocchi was different, Akashicchi?" asked Kise as he turned to look at Akashi

 

"Something still feels a bit off though," muttered Akashi to himself.

 

"That's so cool, Kurokocchi!"

 

"Eh?"

 

"You're a halfie. Those are really rare, right, Midorimacchi?!"

 

"It is technically a 10% survival rate for a child to be born between two different races," stated Midorima. Nigou changed back to his fox form and jumped into Kuroko's arms. While the vampires were talking amongst themselves, Kuroko took advantage of that and slipped out of the scene.

 

Kuroko walked down several hallways until he was far enough from the others, feeling uncomfortable about the situation he was put in, although he was a bit curious about what he was now. 

 

"Nigou?"

 

"Yeah, whatsup."

 

"If possible, can you tell me more about myself."

 

"Sure I can. What do you take me for?"

 

Kuroko smiled as he continued walking down the hallway to his room.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Hmm, that's weird..." stated Nigou, in his human form.

 

"What is it?"

 

"All your past memories, are blocked off. Even I can't breach them,"

 

"Why?"

 

"I don't know. There's some kind of barrier to them. Maybe a vampire made it..."

 

"Well that's a shame," said Kuroko in a disappointed tone. Kuroko couldn't remember anything about himself before the age of 4 and tried multiple ways to remember them, but no matter what he did, he couldn't remember.

 

"Well, that's unfortunate, but there's nothing I can do. Sorry, Kuroko," said Nigou as he shifted from his human form to his fox.

 

"No, it's fine. Maybe I asked too much from you," said Kuroko. 

 

"Anyways, when did you get that?" asked Nigou, pointing towards the gemmed bracelet on the boy's wrist.

 

"Oh, this? I got it from a Siren named Ogiwara Shigehiro."

 

"Ogiwara Shigehiro, sounds familiar..." muttered Nigou, "Oh yeah, isn't he royalty?"

 

"Royalty?"

 

"Yeah. The Sirens have their own ruling style that isn't influenced by the type of ruling we have here. There's a royal family for the Sirens as well. I believe I remember that Ogiwara was the royal family's name..."

 

"Really," said Kuroko surprised. He seemed to run into a lot of royal people nowadays.

 

"But I'm really surprised that HE gave you that," said Nigou, pointing towards the bracelet.

 

"Why? Should I not be wearing it?" questioned Kuroko.

 

"No, it's fine to me. It's just that Sirens absolutely hate everything living on land, so they typically would drown anyone that gets close to their kingdom's borders," stated Nigou. Kuroko shivered at the thought of getting drowned by a Siren. He was suddenly thankful that Ogiwara was the one that was there instead of some other Siren.

 

"But you should keep it hidden from others."

 

"Why?" asked Kuroko.

 

"Many people would do anything to get their hands on something that links into the Siren kingdom."

 

"Why would they want to enter the Siren kingdom?"

 

"There are gems and crystals down there that are worth a fortune. Sirens are also worth a lot of money if you can successfully capture one and get rid of its magical ability."

 

"That's awful!" exclaimed Kuroko, thinking back to how similar it was to human-trafficking.

 

"I know. But there are always going to be terrible people out there that do stuff like that," said Nigou. There was a moment of silence before Kuroko perked up.

 

"Oh, right. Now that I think of it, I had something to do," said Kuroko as he got up and walked over to the door.

 

"Hey, where are you going?" asked Nigou as he hopped off the boy's bed and followed after Kuroko.

 

"To the library."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Hmm, it's not here either. Maybe I should check in a different section..." stated Kuroko as he walked over to a different section in the library.

 

"Kuroko, tell me already what you're looking for. I could probably help you," whined Nigou.

 

"Ugh, fine. I'm looking for a Siren spell book," said Kuroko while looking through books.

 

"For what reason?" asked Nigou.

 

"There's a certain spell that I wanted to learn called 'Link.' Ogiwara-kun said it was a simple spell and after Kise-kun said that I might be capable of magic, I wanted to try out 'Link." 

 

"You know, Ogiwara probably just looks like a kid, but he's probably much older than you think. The older you are, the easier spells are for you, since your magical capacity grows much larger. Kuroko, you're still really young. You're only 6."

 

"I'll be turning seven in January," said Kuroko.

 

"Usually each race fully manifests at 12, excluding humans. After the age of 12, you'll be able to conduct much more advanced and complicated spells. If you attempt to do complex spells before the age of 12 and strain yourself in the process, you'll be magicless for your entire lifetime, or even worse, lose your life," said Nigou with a sigh.

 

"Well, that's if I overdo myself, and I'm not even using a hard spell," said Kuroko, still searching for the book he was looking for. "How could you kill yourself by overworking your magic anyways?"

 

"As I told you, everybody's magic capacity grows as they grow older. At age 12, you'll achieve the largest magic capacity that you'll be able to have. Well, there are exceptions for some people, like your little vampire friends who belong in the royal family. They have some kind of mutation that allows them their magic capacity to keep growing as they age and not stop at 12. As for you, Kuroko, I'm assuming you're half sorcerer since your magic capacity is smaller for your age compared to other races, so if you try using a spell that requires a greater magic capacity than what you have right now, you'll use up all your magic in you and possibly die. If you survived, you'd probably be bedridden for the rest of your life, so I highly don't recommend you do it. Sirens already have a large magic capacity at a young age, so they would be able to use high-level spells at a young age, that's why Ogiwara is able to use Link. Link is a much more complicated spell than you think it is. I think the magic capacity you need to have for it would be about 50 and you are currently 9."

 

Kuroko looked back at the fox with a confused expression. "Sorry, you lost me after your second sentence. Can you like, say it in a way I can understand..."

 

Nigou sighed as he said, "Basically, the magic capacity you need for the spell Link is 50. You are at 9."

 

"Oh, what's the max magic capacity for sorcerers?"

 

"Sorcerers are 75. Humans are 0. Werewolves are at 1200. Nymphs are at 1500 while Demons are at 1560. Normal Vampires are at 1700, Noble Vampires are at 1900, and the Royal Family can max out."

 

"Max out?"

 

"It is when you exceed the limits of your magic capacity. You can exceed limits through hard work, which usually doesn't work for races other than vampires, or a mutation that continues your mana growth, which is usually what members of the Royal Family have."

 

"Mana?"

 

"I guess I forgot to tell you. Mana is somewhat like your magical stamina. It decreases as you use more difficult spells and if you rest, it'll be recovered. The more mana you have, the more complicated spells you can use. You're mana also peaks at the age of 12."

 

"So, is mana and magical capacity the same thing?"

 

"No, your magical capacity is the limit of how much mana you can contain in your body. So for the Link spell, you need to use up about 50 mana to successfully use it."

 

"How fast does your mana recover?"

 

"It's different for each age and what race you are. But with hard work, you can almost make your mana recover instantaneously."

 

"Won't that kill you? You said so yourself..."

 

"No, that's if you want to use a spell that exceeds your magical capacity. Increasing your mana recovery speed is completely different. I think you should work on your mana recovery speed instead of working on spells."

 

"What do I have to do that..."

 

"It is similar to stamina training. You exercise!"

 

"Yeah, no thanks. I don't like running," said Kuroko, turning back to the books.

 

"Did you listen to anything that I just said?" asked Nigou with a dumbfounded expression.

 

"No, not really," said Kuroko, blankly (What a tsundere...).

 

"I told you that you can't use the Link spell. You don't have enough mana!"

 

"Then what can I do?" asked Kuroko.

 

"You can do simple things. Like make small objects levitate, form small fires, create water spheres, simple things like that."

 

"Doesn't sound simple whatsoever..."

 

"Well comparing it to splitting the Earth, it's considered very simple."

 

"S-Splitting the Earth..."

 

"I've heard that that's the simplest spell in the Angel Realm," said Nigou with a dreamy look.

 

"Wow, Angels are on a whole nother' level. Is there any more information on them, I was always interested in them ever since I read about a chapter on them."

 

"Unfortunately, the only information we have on them is that one piece of flattened stone where apparently an Angel wrote a brief explanation on what they were. We're not even sure an Angel wrote that or not..."

 

"Oh, that's unfortunate. Anyways, can you teach me how to use simple spells?" asked Kuroko.

 

"Yeah, sure, but it's not going to be easy since you're starting much later than sorcerers usually start."

 

"It's fine, I want to learn."

 

"Okay then," said Nigou with a smile.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Speaking of magic capacity, what's yours," asked Kuroko while Nigou and Kuroko headed back to where the vampires and the nymph were at.

 

"Mine is 1850."

 

"That's high!" exclaimed Kuroko loudly.

 

"What do you expect it to be. It needs to be high since I control the weather and its elements."

 

"I see..."

 

While the two were in the library, a lot of time passed for Kuroko to find a book that was suitable for his magic level. It was a spell book for young sorcerers. Half of the book was sorcerers with a magical capacity smaller than 10 while the other half was for young sorcerers that had a magic capacity of 20. Luckily, each spell was labeled the amount of magic capacity needed.

 

"What time is it, Nigou?"

 

"Oh, it's around 5:43 p.m. We spent 4 hours in the library," said Nigou.

 

"Oh, I see..."

 

When the two walked into the main living room, they saw the others still there."

 

"KUROKOCCHI! WHERE DID YOU DISAPPEAR TO?!"

 

"I went to the library to look for a book."

 

"What book were you looking for?" asked Midorima. Kuroko held out the book in front of him to show the others what he found.

 

"Spells for Young Sorcerers?" said Midorima, reading the title.

 

"Nigou told me that my magical capacity is 9 at the moment, so I'm going to learn low-leveled spells to pass time."

 

"That's great Kurokocchi! I want to watch! Can I watch you practice!" exclaimed Kise, excitedly.

 

"I don't really mind who watches," stated Kuroko.

 

"Then I want to watch too," said Aomine with a smirk. "Let's see what you're capable of." Aomine's words stirred up Kuroko's competitiveness.

 

"Sure thing," replied Kuroko.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

The next day, Kuroko woke up early to practice, without others watching what he was doing with Nigou tagging along. They were out in a courtyard that was a separate island floating close to the mansion. Nigou was able to create a light bridge to get on the island by manipulating the sunlight.

 

"You should start with this one," said Nigou, pointing to a spell that required a magic capacity of 3.

 

"Ok, I'll try."

 

"Do you know how to read?"

 

"Yeah, some werewolves taught me how to read and write," said Kuroko, thinking back to his days with Kagami and Alex.

 

"You never cease to amaze me," said Nigou with a smile.

 

"Well, you'll be more disappointed than amazed today," said Kuroko as he looked at the spell's instructions.

 

"Volubilis sphaera aquae!" announced Kuroko and a small spinning sphere of water appeared in his palm.

 

"Wow, you managed to do it," said Nigou, clapping his hands together. Nigou shifted as soon as they got outside beforehand. "Try making it bigger."

 

Kuroko looked into the page to see how to make it bigger. "Crescere maior!" The sphere then grew as big as a basketball.

 

"Ok, try detaching it from yourself next."

 

"Detach?"

 

"Yeah, separate it from your palms and let it float in the air."

 

"Is that even possible?"

 

"Anything is possible in this world."

 

"It doesn't give a spell to detach it though..."

 

"Repeat after me, 'desciscendum."

 

Kuroko took a deep breath then said, "Desciscendum!"

 

The large spinning sphere of water then left Kuroko's palms and floated in mid-air in front of him. 

 

"You're doing much better than I thought you would," said Nigou. "Try saying all those commands at once now."

 

"What?!"

 

"I'll then become one command, instead of three separate ones."

 

"How do I do that?"

 

"Take the all three of the spells and make them into your own spell. This spell book is just a reference."

 

Kuroko sighed as he said, "Discedite a me maiora crescunt lanificio sphaera aquae!" The same thing happened as when he said the three seperate commands. "Woah!" Kuroko exclaimed as he saw what he just did.

 

"D-Did you just see that!" exclaimed Kuroko, smiling and was practically sparkling with excitement.

 

"Yeah I did!" said Nigou, laughing at Kuroko's reaction. "Good job!" said Nigou as he raised his hand. Kuroko just stared at Nigou's hand for a while, not knowing what to do.

 

"Do I shake it?"

 

Nigou sighed as he said, "No, you take your hand like this," and took Kuroko's hand and slapped it against his own hand. "It's called a high-five."

 

"Oh, cool!" Nigou thought to himself,  _ Only at times like this does he actually act his age. _

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

It was around 10:30 in the morning when Kise realized he was going to go see Kuroko practice spells. He completely forgot. The blonde then traced where Kuroko was and found him at the floating island near the courtyard. He then flew up to see what was going on. 

 

"DUCK!!" yelled Nigou. Thankfully, Kise ducked just in time to avoid getting attacked by a huge water spear.

 

"W-What's going on?!" asked Kise, shocked at what just happened.

 

It seemed as though Aomine was already there. He looked just as shocked as Kise.

 

"Hey, Kise. This guy is improving way to quickly," said Aomine with a creeped out expression on his face. Nigou also had the same expression.

 

"How did he master that? Doesn't the water spear require the magic capacity of 30?" questioned Kise.

 

"I have no idea what he did either. He just kept saying something about a voice in his head," said Nigou, walking over to them.

 

"A voice in his head?"

 

"Yeah, Kuroko said that some voice told him to shorten the water spear spell and change it a bit so that he could use it and he then said, 'terebrare vacui, hastam aqua' when the actual spell is, 'Lumen terebramus acuto vacui, hastam aqua," said Nigou.

 

"Well, things are getting interesting," said Aomine with a grin.

 

"Dimittit aquam lancea latus," said Kuroko and the summoned water spear disappeared and Kuroko walked over to the others.

 

"How are you saying all these spells that I didn't even teach you?" asked Nigou.

 

"I don't know either. Some voice keeps telling me different spells and I just say them out loud and different things happen," said Kuroko with a shrug.

 

“THAT’S SO COOL, KUROKOCCHI!” exclaimed Kise as he picked up the boy and spun in circles.

 

Aomine then stole Kuroko from Kise’s arms before he got brain damage. “Oi, Kise, be careful! Remember Akashi told us that Tetsu has a really weak physique?!” said Aomine, annoyed, as he placed Kuroko on the ground.

 

“S-Sorry, Kurokocchi!” said Kise, guiltily.

 

“No, it’s fine,” said Kuroko, getting up as the dizziness started going away.

 

"Oh yeah, I wanted to ask this yesterday, but where did you get that?" asked Kise pointing towards the bracelet that Kuroko was still wearing. Kuroko then remembered the conversation he and Nigou had the night before. Kuroko quickly covered it up with his sleeve. 

 

"It's nothing," and backed away a bit. Kuroko then remembered the promise he made with Ogiwara that he would meet him again at the Crystal Cavern. It would take him a bit over an hour to get to the Four Seasons Forest (Yes, the mansion is that big)

 

"I got to go. Thank you for accompanying me while I practiced," said Kuroko with a bow and motioned for Nigou to follow him. Nigou summoned the light bridge again and the two walked off the bridge and ran back into the mansion. He still remembered the way to Four Seasons Forest because the voice in his head always gave him instructions on how to get there. Kuroko allowed Nigou to come with him since Nigou seemed to be able to go into the Siren Kingdom whenever he wanted to. 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

After quite a bit of running, Kuroko made it to the Four Seasons Forest. He then pressed the gem on his bracelet which caused a screen to pop up. Kuroko then clicked on the Crystal Cavern, teleporting both Nigou and Kuroko to the location he chose. What Kuroko didn't notice were three mysterious figures loitering nearby watching the entire process unfold.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's the 6th chapter! Sorry for the delay!

"Ogiwara-kun! Sorry that I'm late!" exclaimed Kuroko as he stopped in front of the Siren to catch his breath from running. It was about 15 minutes past their meeting time and Kuroko was afraid that Ogiwara had already left. Thankfully, he was still there.

 

"No biggie. Anyways, who'd you bring along with you?" questioned Ogiwara, eyeing the fox.

 

"Oh, him? This is Nigou, a divine creature I picked up on my way back yesterday," said Kuroko, looking down at the fox.

 

"Nigou, Nigou... Why does that name ring a bell," muttered Ogiwara. "Oh yeah! YOU!" said Ogiwara loudly pointing towards the fox in an expression that he couldn't really make out. Was he angry, sad, happy, annoyed?

 

"What? What is it?" asked Kuroko, genuinely confused and curious.

 

Ogiwara stayed silent until he said, "Nothing, nevermind." Kuroko thought that Ogiwara was acting suspicious, but he decided not to push it since everyone had their boundaries and their secrets.

 

"Oh, Ogiwara-kun, I have some news," said Kuroko, nervously.

 

"What?"

 

"Well, yesterday, Nigou told me that I'm not fully human and that I have mixed sorcerer blood in me," said Kuroko. Ogiwara seemed shocked at first, but then was excited for Kuroko.

 

"That's great, Kuroko! I mean, I think that it's great... As long as you're happy about it, I'll be happy with you!" said Ogiwara, excitedly. Kuroko smiled at Ogiwara's thoughtfulness. He couldn't understand why people believed that all Sirens were monsters or something below everyone else when there were Sirens like Ogiwara.

 

"Hey, Kuroko."

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Do you want to come to the Siren Kingdom with me?" Kuroko was shocked.

 

"What?! Is that even possible?! Won't you get in trouble?!"

 

"It's no problem. I practically get away with everything," said Ogiwara with a small smirk and a laugh.

 

"But, don't you think that me visiting would be a big problem that even you might get in trouble for?" asked Kuroko.

 

"Oh, I already told my family about you," said Ogiwara. Kuroko just sat there, staring at Ogiwara for a while.

 

"You told them, what..."

 

"Yeah. I already explained that I always visited a human boy in the afternoons. They seemed pretty chill with it... after 2 hours of yelling at me..." said Ogiwara with an averted gaze.

 

"Ogiwara-kun... you seem like the type that gets in trouble a lot," said Kuroko, honestly.

 

"I-I don't! Usually..." muttered Ogiwara. Kuroko laughed a bubbly laugh while Ogiwara smiled as well.

 

"So, do you want to come?"

 

"Of course I do!" exclaimed Kuroko, "but, what about my clothes?"

 

"Don't worry, I'll dry them for you when you come back."

 

"But I don't know how to swim."

 

"You won't need to know how." Kuroko was confused. Usually, if you go underwater, you would need to know how to swim to move around. What was Ogiwara planning to do?

 

"Nigou, are you coming too?" asked Ogiwara, in an annoyed tone.

 

"Where's the honorifics? I'm way older than you!" shouted back Nigou.

 

"Sorry, you old geezer. Anyways, you coming?"

 

"Ge-?!" Nigou sighed. "Honestly, kids nowadays have no manners. I'm coming since I need to watch over Kuroko," said Nigou as he jumped into the water. Kuroko also joined Ogiwara and Nigou by getting into the water along with them. 

 

"It's surprisingly warm," said Kuroko, holding onto the ledge of rock so that he wouldn't sink.

 

"Yeah. We Sirens can live in cold waters but we prefer to have warmer temperature waters. You know, you can let go of that rock," said Ogiwara as he swam over.

 

"But then I'll sink..."

 

"It's fine, here," said Ogiwara as he extended his hand. Kuroko took it and Ogiwara immediately swam downwards, pulling Kuroko along with him. The boy panicked at first, not being able to breathe, but remembered the bracelet he was given by Ogiwara and took in a breath of air. The passage looked the same as when he was first brought to the Crystal Cavern, but it never ceased to amaze him at how beautiful the scenery could be underwater.

 

Nigou was following closely behind them. Kuroko remembered Nigou telling him that he could control weather's features which meant he could control rain and since rain belonged in the water elements, Nigou was able to breathe underwater.

 

Ogiwara pulled Kuroko along in the water until small city lights could be seen in the distance. It grew closer and closer until he was able to see an entire kingdom in front of him.

 

"Where do you live, Ogiwara-kun?" asked Kuroko.

 

"There," said the Siren, pointing towards the gleaming palace.

 

Kuroko took a second to take in the size and extravagance of an underwater palace. "It's so pretty!" said Kuroko with sparkling eyes.

 

"I guess others could see it as pretty," said Ogiwara, chuckling. As they swam through the crowds of Sirens, they all seemed to move away from them either to make a path for the eldest prince or because they were frightened to see "a land creature" in their kingdom. Nigou seemed very annoyed by all the stares they were receiving.

 

Eventually, the three reached the palace gates and the Sirens that were standing guard was about to open the gates to welcome in the prince, but before they did, they caught sight of Kuroko and Nigou and looked shocked.

 

"Prince, Ogiwara! Why do you have 'those' with you?" asked one of the guards while pointing towards Kuroko and Nigou.

 

Nigou seemed very pissed now. "Ha? What did this fucktard sa-" Kuroko stopped Nigou before he throttled the two guards.

 

"They are my friends. This is Kuroko and the other is Nigou. I already alerted Mother and Father that I would be bringing them. Did you not hear?" asked Ogiwara.

 

"We can not let them in. They are trespassers!" said the other guard.

 

"They aren't trespassers. They're my friends. I find it very offensive that you would call them trespassers. Now open the gate before I blast a hole into it," said Ogiwara, pissed. At the moment, Ogiwara's way of talking seemed similar to Akashi's and it gave Kuroko chills.

 

"Y-Yes, you're majesty," said the guards as the gate opened. Although the two Sirens glared at Kuroko and Nigou as they passed through the gate, they didn't do anything to stop them.

 

As the three swam through the corridors of the palace, Kuroko took in the interior design of the palace, which was completely different from designs used on land. The Sirens that worked in the palace seemed to try and avoid running into Kuroko and Nigou and Kuroko was trying to figure out why. Fear? Anger? Resentment? 

 

"My bedroom's this way," said Ogiwara as he pulled Kuroko towards the direction of his room. Ogiwara came to a stop in front of a large rock door. He whispered the words, "patentibus," as he placed his hand on the door and the rock door opened.

 

When the door opened, Kuroko saw the most elegant looking bedroom he'd ever seen, excluding the rooms in the vampires' house. In substitute of a bed, Ogiwara had a large seashell with a kelp blanket inside of it. He had a desk made out of shells of various shapes. Surprisingly, he had a bookshelf with books in it. Kuroko took a book out and opened it to see a screen open up and symbols that he didn't understand show on the screen. He guessed that it was the Siren language. There were orbs of light that floated around the room and turned off if you touched them. The bathroom, wait, there's no bathroom... Where's the bathroom...

 

"Ogiwara-kun?"

 

"Yeah?"

 

"How do Sirens excrete waste?" Ogiwara blushed at the question causing Kuroko to become flustered too. "Y-You don't have to answer the question i-if you feel uncomfortable," said Kuroko as he waved his hands frantically around him. 

 

Ogiwara laughed as he said, "I'm just messing with you. It's nothing that's inappropriate or anything. We regurgitate everything we eat. That's why Sirens could last about two weeks without food."

 

"Isn't that painful?" asked Kuroko.

 

"Nah, not really, once you get used to it. Oh yeah. The reason why I brought you here Kuroko was because I wanted to show you something." Ogiwara swam off and came back carrying a book. He opened it and a screen showed up. This time, Kuroko could read it. It was a spell book, an advanced one at that too.

 

"I found a spell that could make me grow legs whenever I want!"

 

"Really! How?!" 

 

"Well, it's a really advanced spell that not even my father could use yet. But I'm about to pass my father's magic capacity so I think I'll be able to manage it in about a year.

 

"A year?! That's so long!" 

 

"A year passes by more quickly than you'd expect."

 

"Stop it, Ogiwara-kun. You sound like an old man," stated Kuroko.

 

"How mean."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Thanks for showing me your home, Ogiwara-kun," said Kuroko as Ogiwara was drying his clothes.

 

"It was no problem. Be careful on your way back," said Ogiwara as he finished drying the clothing.

 

"Of course I'll be careful. Bye Ogiwara-kun!" said Kuroko as he turned to go through the Spring portal, Nigou following closely behind him. Once the two walked through the swirling pink portal, they ended up at the edge of the water where he was transported the last time as well. At the time, it was night.

 

"Kuroko, are you not coming in?" asked Nigou as he was already heading inside.

 

"Yeah, just give me a second. I'll go in a bit," said Kuroko as he gazed at the sky.

 

"Alright. If you don't come in 30 minutes, I'm dragging you back in here," said Nigou as he pushed open the large door and went inside the house. Kuroko was left outside, staring at the stars in the sky.

 

_I wonder what would've happened if I stayed at my previous Master's house and didn't come here. I wouldn't have met Ogiwara-kun, Nigou, Kise-kun, Aomine-kun, Akashi-kun, Midorima-kun, Murasakibara-kun, the servants at the house and experience new things. I'm thankful for all that's happened. But I do miss Kagami-kun and Alex though. I wonder if I'll see them again. Now that I think about it, if I hadn't left their house, I wouldn't have met everyone here as well. I should probably go in now. Nigou will get mad at me if I stay out too long._

 

Kuroko turned and walked in the direction of the door. Right as he reached the door, he collapsed and lost consciousness.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"Hurry up and open the damn screen! We don't have all day! What if the princes come out and see us?!"

 

"I'm tryin'! It just won't respond!"

 

"Hey, have you ever tried thinking about using the kid's finger instead of yours you idiot?!"

 

"Oh, I'll try that."

 

"Don't give me that shit! We don't have all night! Boss wants us back at 3 with the Siren."

 

"Oh, it worked." A screen showed up out of the gemmed bracelet. He tapped "Crystal Cavern" and the four of them were transported there.

 

"Okay, now what. He ain't here."

 

"He'll show up once he knows that this kid came here using his link. Anyways, who is this kid?"

 

"I think he lives with the princes."

 

"Well no shit he lives with them. Maybe he's a servant, or better yet, a doll!"

 

"Take a look at his face."

 

One of the men parted the hair that was covering the boy's face. "Yup, he's definitely a doll!"

 

"Let's bring him along with the Siren. Dolls are in high demand after all, especially young ones."

 

"Well no shit, we'll bring him."

 

"He's not dead though, right?"

 

"Check his pulse."

 

"Hey, what are you three doing here?" asked Ogiwara who just arrived to see three people he didn't know, and Kuroko laying on the ground, blood trickling down his forehead.

 

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO KUROKO!" yelled Ogiwara as he was about to launch an attack spell.

 

"WAIT! WAIT! WE DIDN'T DO THIS TO HIM! WE FOUND HIM LIKE THIS NEAR THE WATER!" one of the men exclaimed as he held his arms in front of him in a defensive manner.

 

"What are you talking about?" asked Ogiwara as he lowered his hand and disbanded the spell.

 

One of the men whispered to another, "What was his name again?"

 

The other whispered back, "You nitwit! The Siren just said Kuroko."

 

"We work as servants for the princes and we were looking for Kuroko here and found him unconscious and we rushed out to help him, but this idiot here," said one of the men as he pointed to another, "forgot the key and we ended up getting locked out. We saw this gem here and thought that maybe you could help him. Since we're humans we couldn't unlock the door."

 

"Oh, so that's what happened. Anyways, bring him here, I'll heal him," said Ogiwara hurridly, worried about Kuroko.

 

"Of course," said one of the men as he picked up Kuroko and brought him close to the water edge. When Ogiwara was about to perform a healing spell, he didn't notice that one of the men already made his way behind him.

 

"What are you d-" Ogiwara then lost consciousness as the back of his head was hit hard by a rock.

 

"You idiot! I told you not to hit him so hard that he'll bleed! Merchandise can't be damaged!"

 

"Anyways, are Sirens really that gullible. This was too easy!"

 

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go back before we're caught," said one of the men as he slung Kuroko over his shoulder and the others put Ogiwara inside a small water tank that they conjured.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"It's been 30 minutes, where the hell is that kid," said Nigou as he stomped his way back to the Four Seasons Forest. 

 

"I want to meet a Siren too. I can't believe Kurokocchi would group me with those disgusting people that use Sirens for money!" fumed Kise as he walked alongside Nigou.

 

"Anyways, why are you all following me?!" asked Nigou, in an annoyed tone towards the vampires.

 

"Cuz I want to see Tetsu."

 

"I would also like to congratulate Kuroko for accomplishing spells," said Midorima.

 

"Kuro-chin hasn't eaten yet."

 

"I'm worried about Tetsuya."

 

"Worried?" asked Nigou, as he stopped in his tracks.

 

"Yes, I sealed him without him knowing because he's the youngest and the weakest out of everyone living here and I was worried about him."

 

"What's a seal?" asked Nigou, who knew about many things about everything except for things between masters and servants.

 

"Oh, it's this marking that 'Masters' put on the back of the servant's neck to tell what mental state they are in, if they're hurt, etc."

 

"Anyways, I feel four other presences with him. One of the presences is unconscious. Tetsuya is also... unconscious," said Akashi as he took in a sharp intake of air. "How could I just now notice that he's unconscious!" exclaimed Akashi as he hurridly teleported to the Four Seasons Forest.

 

"The rest of the group did the same and teleported to the Four Seasons Forest. Once Nigou arrived at the Four Seasons Forest through the teleport, he looked at the sight in front of him and his expression scrunched up in anger and said,

 

"He's not here."


	7. Chapter 7

"Aka-chin, can you find him yet?"

 

"No, I'm trying," replied Akashi, who had his fingers pressed against his temples. Masters could track servants by the marking on the back of their necks, but they can only track them when they are conscious.

 

"We should've just put a physical tracker on him," muttered Aomine.

 

"When will you be able to find his location?" asked Nigou.

 

"When he wakes up," responded Akashi with a sigh as he sat down on a chair. There was a brief silence before Nigou spoke up.

 

"So... what. Are you guys not going to even try to look for him?" 

 

"Well, we can't do anything until Kurokocchi wakes up."

 

"So you aren't even going to try and search for him?!" asked Nigou in a louder voice. When everyone averted their gaze, Nigou became enraged. "Do you even care about him?! Or was that all acting?!"

 

"Of course we care about him!" said Kise in a loud tone. "Just... not to the point of spending our time looking for him.

 

"Are you serious!?" yelled Nigou. "You all are despicable! I'm looking for him by myself then, unlike you heartless creatures who won't even go look for a child you took custody of," spitefully stated Nigou as he stormed out, leaving the vampires drowning in guilt at his words.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Kuroko groaned as his sight slowly recovered itself. As he sat up, he immediately winced as his head throbbed. There was something wet dripping from his forehead and when Kuroko raised his hand to touch it he saw thick red liquid coating his fingers. Blood.

 

"Kuroko?" The boy looked up to see Ogiwara inside a tank looking at him with a relieved expression.

 

"Ogiwara-kun! What are you doing in there?" asked Kuroko as he got up, ignoring the pain, and ran over to the tank.

 

"Some people captured me and put me in here. This thing here is preventing me from using my magic," said Ogiwara distastefully as he tried punching the tank.

 

"Where are we?" questioned Kuroko as he looked around the dark room that had a series of boxes and other junk that was accumulating dust.

 

"No idea. When I woke up, you and I were here."

 

"Give me a second. I'm going to go find something to break this tank."

 

"You won't be able to break it. It's enforced with some defensive spell that won't let it break. Also when Sirens dry up, they won't be able to breathe, causing them to die."

 

"Oh. I won't then. I'll go look for the door," said Kuroko as he walked towards a wall and grazed his fingers along it as he walked forward until his fingers felt a metal doorknob. "Ogiwara-kun, I found it!"

 

"The door?"

 

"Yeah." Kuroko tried opening the door, but as he thought, it was locked. "I'll go find something to break the door down then," said Kuroko as he went looking through different boxes. Kuroko eventually found something that could be useful. When Kuroko tried picking it up, it immediately dropped from his hands, due to the weight, and caused a loud crash as it hit the cement floor. The boy froze as he heard footsteps approaching the door.

 

"What's all the ruckus!?" shouted a person dressed in all black. He stopped shouting when he saw both Kuroko and Ogiwara were awake. He smiled as he said, "Hey guys! They're awake! Tell the boss!"

 

Ogiwara muttered the word, "Werewolves," as he shuddered. Not a second later, other men showed up at the door along with a woman who had long jet black hair and a suit on. Kuroko assumed she was the boss. She had glowing golden eyes with long black eyelashes. Her lips were blood red which curled into a smile.

 

The woman said as she pointed to Kuroko and Ogiwara, "Do it," and turned and left the others to do what she ordered them to do. Two of the men rushed over to Kuroko and held his arms so that he couldn't move. Another man, that looked completely different from the others, walked over to the tank and pressed his hand towards the tank glass.

 

Kuroko didn't know what he was doing, but he didn't get a good feeling about what the man was about to do. "What are you doing?!" exclaimed Kuroko directed towards the werewolves.

 

The silver-haired man near the tank glanced back at Kuroko struggling against the werewolves holding him back. "Why should I tell you?" asked the man. Kuroko, not having an answer simply glared at the man until a mischevious smile spread on his face.

 

"I'm simply stripping him of all his magical abilities down to zero," said the man while laughing. Ogiwara paled in fear as Kuroko's anger only grew. 

 

"How can you laugh while you say something like that?!" questioned Kuroko between gritted teeth, enraged at the fact that the man treated others' lives like they were nothing.

 

The man sneered and said, "Because it's fun. Glaring won't do you any good either. Just sit back and watch, human." He turned back to the tank and once again pressed his palm against the tank. This time, I bright red light gleamed from the surface of the tank that the man was touching. Kuroko could only watch as the Siren inside the tank screamed in pain from whatever the red light was doing.

 

Kuroko's anger turned to desperation. The boy helplessly struggled against the men holding him back. He couldn't bear to watch someone precious to him be taken again. Was there absolutely nothing he could do. Was he really that weak..? But, that was the exact reason he wanted to help Ogiwara. The potential between Ogiwara and Kuroko was heaven to earth. Ogiwara always helped him out and was the very reason Kuroko was able to smile again. It was his time to help him back. Kuroko was brought back to reality by Ogiwara's screams of pain, then, something snapped in the boy's head and his vision turned white.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"I caught signal of Tetsuya," said Akashi as he rose from his seat.

 

"You did?! Where is he?" asked Aomine.

 

Akashi looked deep in thought and then said, "Underground in an unknown area."

 

"Well, let's head over now!" exclaimed Kise. Akashi nodded and they all teleported to the area above where Kuroko and Ogiwara were since teleporting underground makes you end up in a random area underground.

 

"Atsushi," said Akashi as he moved out of range. Murasakibara walked over to where Akashi was originally standing and punched the ground causing there to form purple cracks that ranged to half a mile. When Murasakibara stood up, the purple cracks crumbled and the vampires plunged down into a dark hallway.

 

After the loud sound of rocks crumbling, there was an eerie silence before the vampires detected the sound of footsteps and squeaking noises. They all turned their heads towards the sound and found Nigou walking with Kuroko in his arms while a strap was tied around his waist to pull a tank that contained Ogiwara sleeping peacefully. The tank was rested on a wheeled platform, causing the workload for Nigou to be reduced greatly.

 

"Nigou! What are you doing here?!" exclaimed Kise.

 

"I sensed something strange and came to investigate and found Kuroko passed out and Ogiwara sleeping in a tank. So, I was trying to get them out of here, but I got lost," admitted Nigou.

 

"Why didn't you just teleport?" asked Kise.

 

"This area  was a no teleport zone until you blasted a hole into it," said Nigou as he looked up at the enormous hole that reached above ground.

 

Akashi walked up to Nigou and carefully took Kuroko from his arms. "Call Satsuki. Tetsuya's head is bleeding," said Akashi as he teleported out of the darkness. Midorima made a brief telepathic call to the nymph and then walked over to Nigou and untied the strap around his waist. He thanked Nigou for going out to look for the two and teleported with back to the residence along with the tank.

 

Murasakibara teleported out shortly after Midorima leaving Kise, Aomine, and Nigou at the scene.

 

"Come on, let's go back," said Kise towards Nigou as he teleported out as well. Aomine quickly teleported along with Kise. Although Nigou was still angry at the vampires for sitting around and doing nothing instead of looking for Kuroko, he wanted to check up on Kuroko's condition so he teleported back to the royal residence.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Everything was a blur as Kuroko's eyes slowly opened. He was able to make out that he was in his room and Momoi was sleeping at the edge of his bed. Yesterday's events started flooding into his head as he sat up, rustling the blankets as he did. _ Oh yeah... Now I remember... I was with Ogiwara-kun in a dark room and they were hurting him... but... what happened after that..?  _ Momoi awoke as the blankets, her head was resting, on moved.

 

"Tetsu-kun?! You're awake!" exclaimed Momoi happily as he pulled the boy into a hug. Kuroko's head didn't hurt. It was probably because Momoi healed him perfectly. "I'll go get the others," said Momoi as she exited the room. As soon as she did, Nigou came out from the corner and hopped onto the bed, in his fox form.

 

"How are you feeling?" asked Nigou.

 

"I'm feeling fine. Where's Ogiwara-kun?" asked Kuroko.

 

"He's in the pool."

 

"The pool?"

 

"Yeah. This place has an outdoor and indoor pool. Ogiwara is in the outside pool right now. I don't think you can even consider calling it a pool though."

 

"I'm going to go check up on Ogiwara-kun. Can you show me where it is?" asked Kuroko.

 

"Yeah, sure, follow me," replied Nigou as he hopped off the bed and walked over towards the exit. Kuroko climbed off the bed and found himself wearing light blue, silk night-clothing. Kuroko followed after Nigou and ran down the hallway, passing the vampires that were walking towards his room.

 

"Eh, Kurokocchi?" said Kise as he turned around to find the boy running down the hallway.

 

"Is it okay for him to be running around like that?" asked Aomine.

 

"It should be fine since I healed him," pointed out Momoi.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

After making several twists and turns and loops, Nigou stopped in front of an oak door. 

 

"He's out there," said Nigou. Kuroko walked over to the doors and pushed them open. Nigou was right, you could hardly call it a pool. There was a waterfall that streamed down into a large pond that had rocks as surrounding and flooring. The pond was also surrounded by a variety of plants. Sakura petals fell down onto the ground from large blossom trees. Kuroko didn't mind that he didn't have any shoes on. He raced towards the pond, running through dewed grass until he reached the edge of the water. There he found Ogiwara, happily swimming underwater. 

 

"Ogiwara-kun!" called out Kuroko with a smile on his face, happy that his friend was safe. At the sound of hearing his name, Ogiwara broke the surface of the water and swam over to the boy.

 

"Oh, you're awake! You've been sleeping for 4 days. Nigou kept coming to me, crying and saying that he thought that you were dying," said Ogiwara as he snickered. Kuroko laughed along with him.

 

"But, what about you? Weren't they draining your magic capacity?" asked Kuroko in a worried tone.

 

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. That pink-haired nymph restored it. It's a miracle on how she was able to do that," said Ogiwara. He continued, "Dang, it's a really nice place here. You have some wealthy 'masters'," said Ogiwara, air-quoting the word 'masters.'

 

"Yeah, I recently found out that they belong to the royal family."

 

"The royal family. Seems nice," said Ogiwara.

 

"You're royalty yourself, Ogiwara-kun," pointed out Kuroko. The boy was still worried about Ogiwara, but soon, he forgot about his worries as he talked with the Siren.  _The people that took us were werewolves, so would they know Kagami-kun and Alex?_ thought Kuroko. He decided to push away the thought at the moment and revisit it at a later time.

 

"Oh yeah, Ogiwara-kun. How did we get out of there?" asked Kuroko.

 

"I don't know either. I passed out and when I slowly started gaining consciousness again, I was here with that nymph," said Ogiwara, confused about the situation as well.

 

"Won't your parents be worried about you?" asked Kuroko.

 

"Most likely, but I don't have a way back. I can only teleport to areas that I linked with and I never thought that I would need to have a link into the Siren Kingdom," said Ogiwara with a sigh. Kuroko looked lost in thought until I thought came to his head.

 

"You know that bracelet you gave me? Maybe I can teleport you back there!" said Kuroko, thinking it was a good idea.

 

"Maybe that might work," muttered Ogiwara.

 

"Let's try it," said Kuroko as he touched the gem and clicked on the "Crystal Cavern." He put his hand on both Nigou and Ogiwara before they teleported to the jeweled cave, since the wearer of the bracelet needed to have physical contact with anyone he wished to teleport along with him.

 

"Oh, it worked!" exclaimed Kuroko.

 

"Good thinking!" said Ogiwara with a thumbs up.

 

"I'll carry you over to the water," said Kuroko.

 

"Do you really think that you could carry him?" asked Nigou.

 

"Yes?" said Kuroko.

 

"You can't even carry anything over 25 lbs. I'll do it," said Nigou with a sigh as he turned to his human form. Nigou crouched down as he picked up the Siren and walked over to the water.

 

"Drop me and you're dead," muttered Ogiwara.

 

"Be grateful, you spoiled brat," replied Nigou as he reached the water side. Nigou then crouched back down and slid him into the water. Ogiwara quickly swam off after saying goodbye to Kuroko. The boy then turned back and slipped through the pink portal and returned back to the 4 Seasons Forest in Spring and by the water where he first met Ogiwara.

 

"Let's go back to my room, Nigou," said Kuroko as he walked towards the door, followed by Nigou.


End file.
